Vin Suprynowicz

By the way, in case you didn’t know, Cat’s Curiosities offers a careful selection of unusual vinyl LP records online — many autographed — as well as our online stock of 1,400 books, all hand-inspected and individually described. To see our online vinyl LPs, check out:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=LP&sortby=0&vci=51238921

These are in addition to the 1,800 vintage LPs in our bins and glass display cases at the brick & mortar store, inside the Charleston Antique Mall, open 7 days a week next to Arizona Charlie’s at 560 South Decatur Boulevard, downtown Las Vegas, 89107. (Call 702-228-4783 for store hours and driving directions.) If it’s unusual, we might have it.

Meantime, the online store also features some interesting new arrivals in the book department, this month:

In Marconi’s Footsteps / 1894 to 1920 / Early Radio
Jensen, Peter R. (VK 2 AQJ and G 4 GZT)
Published by Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst NSW, Australia (1994)
ISBN 10: 0864176074 ISBN 13: 9780864176073
Used Hardcover First Edition
Price: US$ 117.50

Item Description: Book Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. 4to – over 9¾ – 12″ tall. “First published in 1994 by Kangaroo Press Pty Ltd.” Contains a fair amount of material about the 1912 Titanic disaster, and a section on “The Replication Projects,” including The Rhumkorff or Induction Coil, the Coherer Detector, the Multiple Tuner and Jigger, etc. 176 pp. including index, on a nice coated stock. Bookseller Inventory # 002831

Nadar / A photographic pantheon — from Baudelaire to Bernhardt — of nineteenth-century Paris: the most striking figures of that extraordinary world of art, intellect, and culture, recorded by the camera of France’s greatest pioneer photographer, FELIX NADAR
Gosling, Nigel
Published by Knopf, New York (1976)
ISBN 10: 0394411064 ISBN 13: 9780394411064
Used Hardcover First Edition
Price: US$ 25.00

Item Description: Book Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. 4to – over 9¾ – 12″ tall. “First American edition” stated. With a wonderful 37-page biography of the eccentric photographer, theater critic, caricaturist and aeronaut — born the son of a Lyon printer, Gasspard-Felix Tournachon. 298 pp. including index. Bookseller Inventory # 002830

The Island of Sodor / Its People, History and Railways (SIGNED TO BOOKPLATE)
Awdry, The Rev. W., and G. Awdry
Published by Kaye & Ward / an imprint of William Heinemann Ltd., London (1987)
ISBN 10: 0434927627 ISBN 13: 9780434927623
Used Hardcover First Edition
Price: US$ 415.00

Item Description: Book Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. Signed “W. Awdry” on railroad silhouette bookplate to front pastedown. Not price clipped; original L12.95 price showing. “First published by Kaye & Ward Ltd. 1987.” There is a small black mark to top page edges near the spine. Sodor, which lies between the mainland and the Isle of Man, was discovered by the Rev. Wilbert Awdrey and his brother George, a librarian by trade, during a visit to the Isle of Man in 1950. It became the setting for, at the time of this writing (1987), some 34 books of the Railway Series, starring Thomas the Tank Engine and friends — the final six of which had been written (as of 1987) by the Rev. Awdry’s son, Christopher. Oddly, few adults traveling in the region have subsequently been able to locate Sodor with any precision. 154 pp., with several B&W maps bound in at rear. Bookseller Inventory # 002818

The Crazy Years / Paris in the Twenties
Wiser, Willism
Published by G.K. Hall & Co. / A publishing subsidiary of ITT, no place given (1985)
ISBN 10: 0839828594 ISBN 13: 9780839828594
Used Soft cover First Edition
Price: US$ 22.50

Item Description: Book Condition: Very Good. with 74 illustrations (illustrator). 1st Edition. First thus — first paperback after the Atheneum hardcover. This book has been read, but carefully — corners are lifting slightly but NO reading creases, NO spine creases. Wiser “gives us almost everything and everybody. . . . better balanced than any preceding history of the times and richer in characters,” commented Malcolm Cowley. Hemingway, Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Miro, Sylvia Beach, Coco Chanel, Cocteau, Diaghilev, Chagall, Gurdjieff, Katherine Mansfield, Nijinsky, Ezra Pound, Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, J.P. Morgan’s nephew Harry (and Caresse) Crosby, and a lot of the other financial patrons whose names are now less familiar, including Nancy Cunard and Winnaretta Singer. The book is episodic, doesn’t really have a major theme or build to a dramatic conclusion, but maybe that’s part of the point. They were , after all, les annees folles. Originally priced at $9.95. Total 256 pp. including index & bibliography. Bookseller Inventory # 002814

The Feynman Lectures on Physics (3-volume hardcover set) and Exercises (accompanying 3-volume softcover set)
Feynman, Richard P., Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands
Published by Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass. (1965)
Used Hardcover First Edition
Price: US$ 250.00

Item Description: Book Condition: Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. These are nice solid books, based on Professor Feynman’s lectures to the freshmen and sophomore classes at Caltech in 1961 and ’62. but with some modest wear to spine heels and with board corners poking through on Volumes II and III. The three matching softcover volumes of “Exercises” are in condition “very good.” All appear to be first printings. Volume I is dated 1963, as is Robert Leighton’s Foreword, with no later dates. Volume II (“The Electromagnetic Field”) is dated 1964, as is Matthew Sands’ Foreword, with no later dates. Volume III (“Quantum Mechanics”) is dated 1965, with Matthew Sands’ Foreword dated December, 1964, with no later dates found. The first two volumes of “Exercises” are dated 1964; the third volume 1965, with no later dates found. Each hardcover volume signed by the previous owner, EE Professor V.A. Suprynowicz. All six books are quartos and they weigh a lot. We’re talking 9 pounds, which is a little more than 4 kilos. That means domestic “Media Mail” for the entire set of six volumes should run about $7.50, while overseas shipping could easily run $64. Yes, really. We love our overseas customers, but stop whining. You’re buying from us because we offer the least expensive copies which are accurately and adequately described, right? There is no more “surface mail”; everything now leaves these shores by air, and we ship our (now your) valuable books in nice sturdy boxes, not plastic body bags. We will happily remit any substantial overage. Price is for the entire set of six volumes — three hardcover and three matching softcover “Exercises.”. Bookseller Inventory # 002810

How It Happened Here / The Making of a Film
Brownlow, Kevin
Published by Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y. (1968)
Used Soft cover First Edition
Price: US$ 20.00

Item Description: Book Condition: Good. No Jacket. numerous B&W production stills (illustrator). 1st Edition. 16mo – over 5¾ – 6¾” tall. “First United States publication 1968 / This book was published simultaneously in a hardcover edition.” Good-plus with edge wear and corner creases. Before he wrote his famous history of the silent movies, “The Parade’s Gone By,” Kevin Brownlow was a 16-year-old British lad who decided to make a low-budget, “What-if-the-Germans-had-conquered-England” movie called “It Happened Here.” This is the tale of how the film got made and distributed . . . sort of. 184 pp. Bookseller Inventory # 002800

Morphological Astronomy
Zwicky, F.
Published by Springer-Verlag, Berlin*Gottingen*Heidelberg (1957)
Used Hardcover First Edition
Price: US$ 250.00

Item Description: Book Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. with 55 figures (illustrator). 1st Edition. 8vo – over 7¾ – 9¾” tall. This book is entirely in English, save for the publisher’s promotion of other titles to the dust-jacket flaps, which is primarily in German language. Printed on a nice coated stock, but bottom edge was once damp, with the result that the bottom edges of the first 200 pages are rippled. These pages, however, have not been stuck together, show no mildew, and are easily read; “Good only.” Dust jacket missing bottom half of spine; also “Good.” PON to FFE. The author was Professor of Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, and astronomer at the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories. “The Large Scale Distribution of Galaxies and of Clusters of Galaxies”; “Kinematic and Dynamic Characteristics of Large Scale Aggregates of Matter”; “The Morphological Method and a Priori Knowledge — The Magic Numbers,” etc. 297 pp. including index. Bookseller Inventory # 002796

The Marine Chronometer / Its History and Development
Gould, Lieut-Commander Rupert T., R.N.
Published by Holland Press, London (1973)
Used Hardcover
Price: US$ 92.50

Item Description: Book Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 2nd Edition. 8vo – over 7¾ – 9¾” tall. Third printing of the 1960 Holland Press second edition. (First Holland Press edition was 1923.) Very good minus in very good minus. Modest foxing to dust jacket only; dust jacket is price-clipped. The absorbing story of the obscure and self-educated Yorkshire carpenter John Harrison (1693-1776) whose marine timekeepers won him the British government’s L20,000 reward for “any method of finding a ship’s longitude within 30 geographical miles at the end of a six weeks’ voyage” . . . though only after the king himself took Harrison’s side and urged Parliament to pay up. Also covering the related inventions of Christian Huyghens, Henry Sully, and Gottfried Liebnitz. 287 pp. including index. Bookseller Inventory # 002791

Dune Girl
Largo, Paul
Published by Venus Books, U.S.A. (1973)
Used Soft cover
Price: US$ 35.00

Item Description: Book Condition: As New. No Jacket. 16mo – over 5¾ – 6¾” tall. Unread, as new mass market paperback. “First Venus Edition, 1973 / First Printing.” So, first thus. As baboons are eventually involved, we believe this is a bootleg edition of Marcus Van Heller’s celebrated (and wildly pornographic) Olympia Press opus “Loins of Amon.” (“Van Heller brings to life ancient Egypt, with the bizarre religious rites of the Pharaohs, and the story of one man’s struggle against cruelty! Based on years of historical and archaeological research . . . The Loins of Amon is a superb re-creation of a turbulent era,” etc.) Spine coded V-1170R, priced at $2.25 to front wrap, otherwise no further author or publisher information provided. 223 pp. Bookseller Inventory # 002785

Battlestar Galactica / The Greatest Space Epic Ever — from ABC-TV and Universal
Larson, Glen A. and Robert Thurston
Published by Berkley Medallion, New York (1978)
ISBN 10: 0425039587 ISBN 13: 9780425039588
Used Soft cover
Price: US$ 17.00

Item Description: Book Condition: Near Fine. No Jacket. 16mo – over 5¾ – 6¾” tall. There’s some dimpling to the front wrap, but this book has no reading crease. It remains as new unread, save for a few hand-written notes to last blank page. “Berkley edition September, 1978 . . . published by arrangement with MCA Publishing, Universal City, California,” which may make this a “first edition thus.” Tie-in with the “Universal Picture” starring Dirk Benedict, Lorne Greene, and Richard Hatch, which we presume was essentially a pilot for the original 21-episode TV series. (And no mention of the gifted Laurette Spang, who network censors decided could no longer be a “socialator”?) Original price $1.95; total 244 pp. Bookseller Inventory # 002786

Baedeker’s The United States / With Excursions to Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, and Alaska / Handbook for Travellers / With 33 Maps and 48 Plans
Baedeker, Karl
Published by Karl Baedeker, Leipzig (1909)
Used Hardcover
Price: US$ 65.00

Item Description: Book Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 4th Edition. 16mo – over 5¾ – 6¾” tall. Very good minus. Gilt titles lovely (albeit slightly copper-colored) to front board and spine. Head of spine has been repaired. ABE requires us to list as either “hardcover” or “softcover,” though of course these original travel guides have somewhat flexible red covers. “Fourth Revised Edition,” originally priced at $4.50. There are 30 titles to front endpapers, none dated. This copy distributed by Charles Scribner’s Sons and dated “1909” to title page. Fold-out color maps appear to be all in place and attached, specific inquiries welcomed. Dutch marbling of page edges remains attractive. 724 pp. including index. We are listing a collection of vintage Baedekers. Bookseller Inventory # 002783

Baedeker’s Nordamerika / die Vereinigten Staaten / Nebst Einem Ausflug nach Mexiko / Handbuch fur Reisende / Mit 25 Karten, 32 Planen und 1 Grundbissen (THE JOHN CARL DRIEMANN COPY)
Baedeker, Karl
Published by Karl Baedeker, Leipzig (1904)
Used Hardcover
Price: US$ 120.00

Item Description: Book Condition: Fair. No Jacket. 2nd Edition. 16mo – over 5¾ – 6¾” tall. Fair. Book appears “very good” from exterior with lovely red cloth cover and nice gold gilt titling, will also close its own text block. But some (not all) of the interior maps are so fragile they can literally come apart in your hands (at the folds), requiring conservation beyond our means. Rear map of United States is intact but torn away from mounting and now laid in — weakness at fold lines of this map supported from rear with small pieces of Magic Tape. (Oklahoma shows up as “Oklahoma Indian Territory.”) Most of frontispiece map of Northeastern United States is torn away and missing. Long horizontal map of Manhattan Island at pp. 4-5 is coming apart at folds; one piece separated and laid in. Book signed in black ink to FFE and title page “J.C. Dielmann / San Antonio, Texas / 1909.” Prussian immigrant John Carl Dielmann was a Texas contractor and builder, father of the noted Texas architect Leo M.J. Dielmann. ABE requires us to list as either “hardcover” or “softcover,” though of course these original travel guides have somewhat flexible red covers. States “Zweite Auflage”; originally priced at $3.60 and sold in the U.S. by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Der gesamte Text ist in deutscher Sprache. 26 titles to front pastedown, none dated; this copy dated 1904 to title page. Dutch marbling of page edges considerably faded. A handsome copy — but with some of the maps quite fragile — of one of the rarer Baedeker variants, with an interesting provenance. We are listing a collection of vintage Baedekers. 591 pp. including index. Bookseller Inventory # 002782

Poetic Gems, More Poetic Gems, and Last Poetic Gems, Selected from the Works of
McGonagall, William
Published by David Winter & Son, Dundee (1974)
Used Soft cover
Price: US$ 105.00

Item Description: Book Condition: Near Fine. No Jacket. In a world which will presumably never run short of earnest adolescents eager to form rhymes on the subjects of babbling brooks and young love, how can we ever hope to definitively identify the “Worst Poet in the English Language”? For starters, our candidate must surely be an adult who undertakes to write on serious matters, and who takes himself seriously, as well — intentional parody must be promptly disqualified. But beyond that, a certain ineffable gift for locating just the right word, for crafting a turn of phrase of unique beauty or power, must also be totally lacking, to a degree impossible to attribute to mere chance. Many have aspired to such greatness, yet who but William McGonagall — the hand-loom weaver who in the late 19th Century used to sell his poems as penny broadsheets in the streets of Dundee — could have crafted the immortal lines “Beautiful railway bridge of the silv’ry Tay! / Alas! I am very sorry to say / That ninety lives have been taken away / On the last sabbath day of 1879 / Which will be remember’d for a very long time.” And so onward, for seven stanzas, his deathless “Tay Bridge Disaster.” “The flat literalness somehow creates a pattern,” wrote R.G.G. Price in “Punch.” “By seeing each fact separately and statically, McGonagall produces fantasy. This, rather than his tortured rhyming and his difficulties with scansion, lifts him to the head of his craft and makes him the greatest Bad Verse Writer of his age.” Offered here a set of three 1970s mass market paperback reprints, all in near fine condition with no visible spine creases (though “Poetic Gems” does show vertical “Docutech crimps” to either side of spine, as made), publisher listed either as Gerald Duckworth & Co., London, or David Winter and Son, Dundee, or listing both: “Poetic Gems,” “More Poetic Gems,” and “Last Poetic Gems” of William McGonagall, poet and tragedian, who in his introductory autobiography attributes his gifts to nothing less than “divine inspiration.” Price for the set of three MM paperback volumes.

For all these and 1,400 more, Go to:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sortby=0&vci=51238921

(Online stock warehoused separately and is not generally available at the brick & mortar location; prices in the Las Vegas brick & mortar store are generally much lower.)