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James M. Dourgarian, Bookman
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2341 Hickory Drive
Concord, CA 94520
925-349-4400
Established1980 - Member ABAA
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Click on the shopping basket by a item to create an email for us to contact you about ordering that item. You may also call 1 (925) 349-4400 to talk to Jim and place a phone order with Visa, Mastercard, or Discover. You may also arrange to pay by check. Click on the link below to email a general inquiry.
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James M.Dourgarian, Bookman, was established in 1980. We are members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA). Like all ABAA members, we answer to a higher authority and follow a higher standard of ethics that guarantees a successful transaction for all our customers.
We buy and sell old books, vintage books, collectible books, rare books, first edition books, and related ephemera. We maintain several specialties. Among them are American fiction first editions from c.1900 to the present. Within that general field, we have heavy emphasis in John Steinbeck and Steinbeckiana. Thus, we buy and sell Steinbeck primary first editions in dust jackets, signed/limited editions, his appearances in anthologies, his periodical appearances, books and periodicals about Steinbeck, film and theatre memorabilia, bibliographies, and miscellaneous items.
We also specialize in these same categories for these authors -- Jack London, Wallace Stegner, and Stephen King. Other specialties include Western Americana, books on California and the West, Photography books, books on Japan, China, and the Orient, and Armed Services Editions. The latter are vintage paperbacks issued to American GIs from 1943 to 1947. They are comprised of mysteries, Westerns, science fiction and fantasy, mainstream fiction, historical novels, science, poetry, adventure stories, and more.
Within our field of modern first editions, we also sell related film memorabilia Thus, we sell film posters, lobby card sets, pressbooks, stills, scripts, etc. for films made from the works of authors we carry such as John Steinbeck, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Raymond Chandler, Zane Grey, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Stephen King, Edward Abbey, Anne Rice, and many others.
| [John Steinbeck] Steinbeck, John. Autograph Letter Signed. Pacific Grove, John Steinbeck, n.d. (November 1948), first edition. Steinbeck writes 57 lines on both sides of his usual long, yellow, ruled paper to long-time friend and key figure in his literary career, Alice Cohee, in 1933 she urged him to try one more time to place Tortilla Flat, previous attempts fell flat, at that time he had three books published, none of which were successful, he did try again after following her advice, Covici Freide took the book which then launched his Nobel Prize-winning career, he then gifted her a specially bound copy of Tortilla Flat, one of only two copies, he responds rather frankly to her earlier analysis of him, "I had your letter this morning. Between dentist and work I have not had much time. Your analyses of me are just about 100% wrong - my guilt feelings etc. My fear of things in work. Your inner feelings about things apparently do not parallel mine. But you work at it. Don't do it any more. It is a rat race. You pick at scabs too much. If that seems like a rap on the knuckles, it is. I am tired of self indulgences and I am tired of sick people. This last does not necessarily apply to you. The 'well gee! I was sick' approach has worn very thin," he then refers to a mystery woman, "I know only one person I can work with. I mean when she is around. That is a little hustler in Mexico, When she isn't eating, drinking or getting laid, she goes to sleep. And she puts no nervousness in a room. If I could stand her for more than two weeks I would send for her," he then talks about plants Alice has given him for his garden in the Pacific Grove house, he continues, "Work goes slowly. I think all right. But I am mean and hard and intractible (sic). You as whether I am in love with someone - many people and without chains. And it is going to stay that way. When any relationship has the faintest clinch of the halter, it is done. There are too any people and too little time," he goes on to discuss issues within the Cohee family, "You and your guilt complexes. This has taken the place of colitis and the various other fashionable diseases. If you feel guilty about something, do something about it. Make reparation or sacrifice or confession or whatever is required but don't carry the god damned thing like a precious possession," he goes on, "If you feel that you have mistreated John (her husband) or your sons (and it sounds like you do) make it up or excise the thing. What a lilly souled generation we have had. And what an ungallant species we have turned out to be," he end by writing, "I'm sorry if this is a rough letter. I am tired of cowardice, It's all around me. I spend half my time holding up other people's heads. Fuck it. I'm through," signed as John, this letter wasn't recorded in Steinbeck: A Life in Letters, housed in its original mailing envelope addressed by Steinbeck. Folded for mailing, very good. JD 36976 |  $6,500.00 |
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