March Top, Signed (4 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. 1968 FIRST PRINTING of FIRST EDITION. SIGNED and inscribed by Ralf Plaisted on short-title page. Original black cloth with green metallic lettering spine, silver decorations front and spine. The book is in excellent condition with clean covers, no fading, no rubbing, no writing or marks on any pages other than Plaisted's inscription and former owner bookplate on FFEP, no foxng, tight binding. The original dust jacket has very minor wear at bottom of spine, no tears, no loss, no fading, clean, original printed price still present on front flap corner. Plaisted inscribed this book to Bill Hackett (this book being from Hackett's collection with his distinctive bookplate on the FFEP). Hackett, a WWII combat veteran of the 10th Mountain Division, was the first person to climb 5 of the Seven Summits, the first to climb both Denali and Logan, the first to climb the N Peak of Logan, a summiting member of Bradford Washburn's expedition that made the first ascent of the popular West Buttress route on Denali, leader of the 1960 USA K2 expedition, the first American to climb Aconcagua, and the first American to climb Mt Kenya. He also visited the North Pole and the South Pole. The book measures 215mm tall x 145mm, and has 193 + [1] pages, and 61 b/w photos. PHOTOS ARE OF ACTUAL BOOK BEING OFFERED. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. A very clean and crisp hardback first edition in a clean dust jacket. There is a small area of soiling on the bottom edge (where it meets the fore edge), but overall this is a fresh and attractive copy. The jacket is very lightly marked on the upper cover, and tanned on the spine, but overall is in nice crisp condition. A very good hardback first edition in a dust jacket, with a handwritten presentation from the author (inscribed many years after the book's publication). Inscribed by Author(s).

Various sizes. Various sizes. Daniel Boone (1734-1820), born near Reading, Pennsylvania, is known as a great pioneer and Indian fighter. His family left for North Carolina in 1750 and settled in Buffalo Lick the following year. Boone spent several years working for his father, a blacksmith and stock-raiser, and then in 1755 began his travels when he joined a North Carolina contingent in the Braddock campaign. Stories he heard from his companion, John Finley, filled him with desire for pioneering the Kentucky wilderness, but after a disastrous battle, he returned home and married Rebeccah Bryan, a neighbor. In 1767, Boone and a couple of men headed westward to explore. They returned home and that same year Finley happened by and Boone and Finley made new plans to head for Kentucky. They commenced their journey in 1769, set up camp at Station Camp Creek, and after many adventures returned home in 1771. From that point forward, Boone set out for the west on a regular basis, accompanying various parties and settlers on their journeys. He brought his family to settle in Kentucky in 1775, and was made a captain and then a major in the militia once the region became a county of Virginia. He battled the Indians, was captured by the Shawnee in 1778, but later escaped and continued to accompany new settlers into the area. Kentucky was divided into three counties the next year and Boone was made lieutenant-colonel of Fayette County and later chosen as a delegate to the legislature. Boone's skill as a pioneer far outweighed his ability to manage his affairs, for, although he had taken up many tracts of land, they had all been improperly entered and after a series of suits over a number of years, lost all of the land. He left Kentucky and settled in West Virginia, where he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the county and later selected as its legislative delegate. Around 1789, he moved to Missouri to join his son, Daniel Morgan, where he was soon elected to public office. After Boone's wife died in 1813, he lived mostly at the home of his other son, Nathan. Boone is remembered as a great pioneer for having "the most qualities needed on the frontiercourage in a rare degree, great fortitude, an iron endurance, a mastery of woodcraft, and single expertness with the rifle. He was loyal in friendship, honest, truthful, and modest. He was one of the most respected and beloved of the nation's heroes." (DAB). Each document folded several times, very short minor tears or chipping mostly at folds, overall very good.

The single-spaced typing looks like that of an old Royal manual, clogged keys and all. Price announces that he has just signed a contract with the Scott Meredith Literary Agency for FRIENDS OF YESTERYEAR, his reminiscence of the pulp fiction days, then devotes the remainder of the letter to the sale of SILVER SERPENT, his Tang Dynasty fantasy novel. He asks McCauley to take the manuscript "out of circulation as soon as possible" and return it to him unless "you have talked ether to Oswald Train, or Lester del Rey" (it would appear that Price is quitting McCauley). Price adds that, before Meredith mailed him the contract for FRIENDS, Lester del Rey asked to see SILVER SERPENT. This happened during a visit with Leigh Brackett Hamilton, whose husband Edmond Hamilton had recently died. Del Rey called, and, when Leigh put Price on the phone to talk with him, the subject of the SILVER SERPENT came up. Del Rey urged Price to submit the manuscript to him, despite Ballantine's earlier rejection of it. "Forget that bounce by Ballantine. I've got a new policy." (The book was, in fact, brought out by Del Rey/Ballantine in 1979 as THE DEVIL WIVES OF LI-FONG.) A interesting look at the informal way that book deals sometimes come about. Price was part of that generation of pulp fiction writers whose roots go back to the 1920s. He was on friendly terms with most of the others in that generation, including Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard. Many of his works had Oriental settings. He stopped writing for the pulps in the 1950s but resumed writing in the 1970s. Kirby McCauley was probably the most important literary agent of horror, fantasy and sf writers in the boom years of the 1970s and 1980s. Good content. Faint crease where folded for mailing, several faint corner creases, fine. (#102665). Signed.