Biblioctopus

The hilarious and generationally popular A Confederacy of Dunces (1980), is one of those pieces of post-modern lit that you should pick up and read while most of us still have all this time perfect for reading. Fine in fine dust jacket, signed by Walker Percy The writing is, as mentioned, hilarious. But the backstory to publication is interesting for all who care: John Kennedy Toole was one of those wonderful ignored writers who’s books were rejected in their lifetime, only... to be recognized and praised after death. Toole killed himself in 1969 leaving behind a carbon copy manuscript which his mother discovered and attempted to get published. Eventually she pestered Loyola University New Orleans professor and author, Walker Percy into reading the manuscript. Percy got the novel published by LSU press in 1980, becoming a mainstream success after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. ** As always, do yourself and your collection a favor, and only buy fine copies of postmodern books. ** #Bibliooctopus #rarebooks #aconfederacyofdunces #postmodern #collectibles #forsale #signedbooks #firstedition @ Century City, Los Angeles See more

As the @dodgers start another post season run, we will be exhibiting @rarebooksla this weekend. With us will be Don Zimmer’s 1959 world championship ring (the Dodgers first World Series in Los Angeles). Come check it out and thousands of other wonderful items @theproudbird this Saturday and Sunday. #dodgers #worldseries #rare #collectable #sportsmemorabilia #biblioctopusnotabook #biblioctopus

Biblioctopus will be exhibiting at a new and exciting book fair next weekend. Come check out some amazing books next weekend @theproudbird for @rarebooksla. Contact us for free tickets. #biblioctopus #rarebooks #bookfair #read @ The Proud Bird

1st edition of the preeminent early Western novel and the most popular one of all time. In the enigmatically rare 1st printing dustjacket. Only 1 authentic copy in a correct jacket has sold at auction in the last 50 years, a chipped, worn, stained, and, repaired jacket, 25 years ago at Sotheby’s. ***** In 1902, Owen Wister wrote The Virginian and invented many of the now standard clichés, but it was Riders of the Purple Sage that was the first long nov...el with archetypal aspects, and a twisting, complex plot that developed along many lines. In it Grey perfected the modern Western, featuring the original, fastest gun Western hero (a laconic and softspoken loner, dressed in black, with an ingrained respect for women and a quick enthusiasm for using his guns to allot his own views of justice). Its impact on filmmaking was immediate and immeasurable. It was arguably, cinema’s most influential novel, and its copious themes of morality, redemption, revenge, honor, xenophobia, isolation, social pressure, religious confrontation, and the victimization of women, shaped, and echo in, all its descendants from The OxBow Incident (1940), to Shane (1949), to True Grit (1968), to Blood Meridian (1984). And though it spawned a type, it had no precedent, or if one scratches the past with enough vigor and insistence, maybe James Fenimore Cooper, but the gap between them (75 years) makes the connection seem hollow. **** More at Biblioctopus.com #biblioctopus #rarebooks #westerns #zanegrey #industjacket #20thcenturypopculture #rare See more

@biblioctopus is exhibiting for one more day in Pasadena at the @ilab2018 Book Fair. For free admission to the final day DM or email us and we’ll leave a pass. ..... Photo is a plate from a 1690 midwifery book by Justine Siegemund. The 41 amazing plates are different from previous obstetric books in that every one of them is illustrated using evidence based observations and experience. This book wound up being one of the most used midwifery texts in continental Europe during the 50 years following publication. It’s rare, it’s cool, and it’s significant. #rarebooks #antiquarianbooks #midwifery #obstetrics #biblioctopus #bookfairs #medicaltexts