Ken Sanders Rare Books

Ken Sanders
books@kensandersbooks.com
Exhibitor Phone: (801) 521-3819
268 South 200 East, Salt Lake City UT 84111

Webiste: www.kensandersbooks.com/

Utah and the Mormons, Western Americana, Western Travels, Maps and Explorations, Wordless Novels, Illustrated and Children's Literature, Modern First Editions, Ephemera

Featured items that Ken Sanders Rare Books plans to bring to RMBPF 2022.

Stephen King (Based on) 
(City/Publisher/Date): Warner Bros., 1979 

Description
Quarto. Red wraps printed in black bound with steel binding post screws at the head and foot. Prepared by Barbara's Place (Script Specialists Typing & Duplicating, Los Angeles, CA). There is a 9" crease to the front wrap, else there are no other flaws.

Based on one of Stephen King's famous early works which was originally published in 1975. "Salem's Lot" was Stephen King's second published novel. The book came out after "Carrie" and before "The Shining." A new adaptation of King's bestseller is set to be released in the spring of 2023.

Condition: Very good

Genre and/or keywords: Stephen King; movies; Warner Brothers; Warner Bros; horror; vampires; script 

Pagination: 195pp. 

Price: $500.00 

Edward Abbey 
(City/Publisher/Date): Warner Bros., 1986-1988  

Description
6 postcards. 7 letters or notes (*one letter has correspondence from Young on one side, and Abbey on the other; one note has brief notes from both of them on the recto). It was a trademark of Ed Abbey to write on the front or the back of a letter that was sent to him. 10 of the pieces are signed by Abbey, 3 are signed by Young.

Noel Young started out as a designer and printer for Black Sparrow Press. He went on to found the Santa Barbara-based Capra Press, a small independent avant-garde publishing house most known for publishing the works of Henry Miller and Anais Nin. Capra Press also published the first work of fiction by the master short story writer Raymond Carver. Capra Press published Abbey's "Black Sun" (1981) and "Confessions of a Barbarian" (1986). 

In one postcard (May, 1986), Abbey states, "It looks like Dutton is going to let my Slumgullion Stew: An Abbey Reader go out of print (They've told me they're remaindering all remaining copies.) Would you be interested in reprinting the book and keeping it alive & available?" Stapled to the postcard is Young's reply: "Dear Ed, I just spoke to Dutton and learned that they have already sold off the remainders of SLUMGULLION. This means there is little point in us reissuing the book until after the remainders are sold off."

In another postcard dated October 1987, Ed writes, "Haven't rec'd a royalty statement from Capra in a long time. Is Black Sun still in print? (It's not listed in current Books in Print.) If not, please revert trade paperback rights to me. Also, please send me five copies of same, if available, and bill me or charge to my account."

In one letter, Young attempts to persuade Abbey to participate in a project, for which he has legitimate backing. Young writes, 

"With the support of the Richard Gallen Co. in New York, we are hoping to publish a series of books (fiction and nonfiction) dealing with animals, even from their viewpoints, and their relationship to humans, civilization, etc. Ursula LeGuin has sent us a book length manuscript of stories involving animals. We'd be happy to have a manuscript from you-- either a collection of pieces that haven't appeared in book form previously, or, best of all, something entirely new. Even an expansion of your cowboy article. Maybe a book told from the coyote's view.

"If you are interested in such a project and have any further ideas, we'd love to hear. We would also be prepared to offer a serious advance, comparable to an eastern publisher. Naturally, the amount would depend upon how much of the material was new."

Abbey writes his response to Young on the reverse of this letter:

"Thanks for the letter. I'm not interested in writing a book about animals, or a story told from an animal's point of view, but I do have a couple of books in mind- one small, one large- that might interest you."

One note particularly captures Abbey's rebellious nature. He writes, on a Xerox of the Capra Press, Inc. Royalty Report, "Dear Noel- Thanks for the check but this computerized (fucking) statement is hard to figure out."



Abbey passed away 4 months after the last piece of correspondence, dated "10 Nov 88."

A small archive representing typical banter between an author and his publisher. A bird's-eye view into the process of publishing, and the process of writing with the hopes of one's work being published.

With most pieces signed by Abbey. Edward Abbey is considered to be the literary father of the radical environmental group Earth First!. Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, still immensely popular today, inspired Earth First!

Condition: Near fine.

Genre and/or keywords: Edward Abbey; Noel Young; archive; ephemera; letters; correspondence; signed; autograph; Western Americana; Earth First! 

Price: $3500.00 

Elbert Hubbard 
(East Aurora, New York / Done into a Book by The Roycrofters at their Shop / 1909 

Description
First edition.

Octavo [20 cm] Limp sheep skin wraps. Yapp edges. The title is embossed on the front wrap. With woven hemp straps. Handmade paper pastedowns and flyleaves. The text block is just starting to come away from the wraps at the rear, and the text block is cracked at the title page. Despite these flaws, this is still quite a nice copy. With stunning two color illustrations by Burt Barnes inserted throughout the text. Paul McKenna points out the following: "Title page and running calligraphic heads look like Dard Hunter's work but are unsigned." McKenna 178.

Condition: Very good minus.

Pagination: 123pp. 

Price: $300.00 

Clarence King
Washington, D.C. / Government Printing Office; Julius Bien / 1870-1880  

Description
First edition.

One of the four major geological surveys of the western United States which took place in the years following the Civil War. This early monumental survey took place in 1867, under the direction of Clarence King (1842-1901). King, a graduate of Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, was only 25 years old when he was appointed Geologist in charge of the exploration along the 40th Parallel, which spanned from Eastern Colorado to California. This expedition represented the first major attempt to map the area in detail, and was one of the first expeditions to use the medium of photography to capture images and activities of the expedition. Timothy O'Sullivan (1840-1882), known for his images of the Civil War, was the photographer for the King survey. His photographs were subsequently reproduced in lithograph form by Julius Bien for inclusion in the published volumes reporting on the expedition. Many of O'Sullivan's original photographs from the 40th Parallel expedition are now in the collection of The George Eastman House in New York and are a unique archive depicting the American West. In 1879, the United States Geological Survey was established and appointed Clarence King its first director. In 1881, King resigned this position to pursue other scientific interests leaving John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) as his successor.

Condition: Professional Papers of the Engineer Department, U. S. Army. No. 18. Seven volumes plus one atlas. Does not have the general atlas. Quarto [30 cm] Volume 1 is bound in 3/4 leather (with some additional skillful restoration work to the binding), and the remaining volumes are in the publisher's original green cloth. Volume 3 once belonged to The Long Island Historical Society (with deaccession stamp on title page). Volumes 4 and 7 have been professionally rebacked, and the hinges of volume 7 have been expertly reinforced. With moderate wear to the spine and boards, and the underlying boards periodically exposed along the edges of the covers. There are only very occasional cracks in the text blocks. Internally very good with plates having little or no foxing. Several pages have small ink stamps from private clubs and booksellers. Volumes include: Vol. I: Systematic Geology by Clarence King (1878); Vol. II: Descriptive Geology by Arnold Hague and S. F. Emmons (1877); Vol. III: Mining Industry by James D. Hague (1870); Vol. IV: Paleontology and Ornithology by Meek, Hall, Whitfield, and Ridgway (1877); Vol. V: Botany by Sereno Watson, et al., (1871); Vol. VI, Microscopical Petrography by Ferdinand Zirkel (1876). Vol. VII: Odontornithes: A Monograph on the Extinct Toothed Birds of North America (1880). ****The introductory pages, including the title, are those belonging to volume 2, however this is really volume 7. All plates and maps are present in each volume. In exceptional condition. The atlas volume is an oblong elephant folio, in original 3/4 brown morocco over red-brown cloth, with cover title in gilt (scuffing to the extremities of the boards). 14 plates, all but one in color. Bartlett, Great Surveys of the American West.

Genre and/or keywords: Western Americana; surveys; exploration; Clarence King; Geological; 40th Parallel

Price: $10000.00

F. V. Hayden
Washington DC / Government Printing Office / 1872-1881

Description
Hayden's monumental survey of the American West, consisting of twelve annual reports, and including the map volume which was issued with the 12th annual report. Of great importance, is the fact that this is the most complete map volume that we have ever seen, with 4 additional maps. The set is sold together with Hayden's large folio atlas "Geological and Geographical Atlas of Colorado." In this set, the first book is the 1873 reprint which contains the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd annual reports. It is important to note that the 4th Annual Report has the cachet of bearing the bookplate "With the compliments of F. V. Hayden, U. S. Geologist." Flake 9204. Wheat, pp. 344-349.

The volumes are good to about very good. Seven of the spines have been restored with varying amounts of the original backstrips overlaid. Five of the books have had tissue repairs or reinforcement to the hinges. Some of the spine titles are faded. The opening pages have occasional ink stamps. There are cracks in the text blocks here and there (several volumes more prominently: Twelve, Part I and Part II, due to their thickness), but most volumes remain quite sturdy. The front hinges of the 7th and 11th annual reports are broken, and the text block is pulling away from the backstrip of the 7th annual report as well. The volumes which are ex-library have often just a single library stamp. A handful of the maps have sporadic splits along the folds, and minor tape repairs. All plates and illustrations are present, with the exception of just one illustrated plate- Plate 78 in the 10th annual report. The boards of the folio atlas are moisture damaged (rear board more so) and a bit warped. Internally, other than some very faint tide lines here and there, the pages are clean and bright.

Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden (1829-1887) was a trailblazing geologist of the West and head of the United States Geographical and Geological Survey of the Territories. Howard R. Lamar notes in "The Reader's Encyclopedia of the American West," that early in Hayden's career, he undertook several geological studies, which included an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the snowy mountain barriers into the mysterious upper Yellowstone region. Lamar goes on to write, "But when, in 1867, he was appointed geologist in charge of the geological survey of Nebraska, he was launched on his life's career. From its modest beginnings in that year he changed its name and expanded his survey into the most ambitious scientific undertaking in the American West. In 1871 and 1872 he led the first scientific parties into Yellowstone, and the subsequent publicity, along with distribution of the photographs taken by his photographer, William Henry Jackson, aided in the passage through Congress of the bill creating the Yellowstone National Park.

Before Hayden's survey the wonders of Yellowstone and much of the surrounding area was terra incognito and known to only a handful of trappers and a few small bands of Indians. One cannot even begin to imagine the magnitude of the subjects covered in this survey. The treatment that Hayden's group gives the area is massive in its scope, and contains hundreds of plates, maps and graphs charting the geological features as well as the fossil record for the area. Complete sets of this survey are uncommon in any condition, much less with the most complete and definitive collection of maps in the map volume that we have ever encountered.

A set from one of the great surveyors of the American West.

Genre and/or keywords: Western Americana; surveys; exploration; Hayden; Geological

Price: $10000.00