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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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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.
Browse Books Listed by Author's Name Browse Armed Services Editions Books Listed by Issue Numbers | |
| [Armed Services Editions] Ullman, James Ramsey. The White Tower. NY, Armed Services Editions, n.d. (1946), first edition thus, wrappers. Softcover. No. 1053 in this important series, a novel of mountain climbing, issued by the Council on Books in Wartime, designed to fit the pocket of a World War II American GI, slightly condensed. Solid very good. JD35086 |  $15.00 |
| [Modern Literature] Underwood, Tim and Miller, Chuck (editors). Bare Bones. Los Angeles, Underwood Miller, 1988, first edition. Conversations on terror with Stephen King, a master of the craft, based on interviews between 1979 and 1987, issued without dust jacket, but with publisher's slipcase, marbled endpapers front and rear, this leatherbound edition comes with a hologram of a skull on the title page, it is lettered JJ, one of 52 such lettered copies. Fine. JD33019 | $275.00 |
| [Stephen King] Underwood, Tim and Miller, Chuck (editors). Fear Itself. San Francisco, Underwood-Miller, 1982, first trade edition, dust jacket. Hardcover. Subtitled The Horror Fiction of Stephen King, introduction by Peter Straub, foreword by King, afterword by George A. Romero, includes pieces on King and his horror fiction by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Fritz Leiber, Charles L. Grant, Douglas E. Winter, etc., includes the first King bibliography which, interestingly, states that King is not Richard Bachman and that King has never used the Bachman name as a pseudonym. Fine. JD585 | $25.00 |
| [John Steinbeck] Untermeyer, Louis (editor). A Treasury of Ribaldry. NY, Popular Library, 1959, first edition thus, wrappers. Softcover. No. W600, includes John Steinbeck's Tortillas and Beans, introduction and text pages 385-392, text from Tortilla Flat, not recorded by Goldstone & Payne or Morrow, also includes Aristophanes, John O'Hara, Oscar Wilde, and many others. Fine. JD29618 | $15.00 |
| [Armed Services Editions] Untermeyer, Louis (selector). The Fireside Book of Verse. NY, Armed Services Editions, n.d. (1945), first edition, wrappers. Softcover. No. T-8 in this important series, a paperback original, foreword by Untermeyer, "favorite poems of romance and adventure" by Joaquin Miller, Longfellow, Whittier, Coleridge, Bret Harte, etc., issued by the Council on Books in Wartime, designed to fit the pocket of a World War II American GI. Very good. JD34399 | $20.00 |
| [Modern Literature] Updike, John. Rabbit At Rest. NY, Knopf, 1990, first edition, first printing, dust jacket. Hardcover. Pulitzer Prize winner. Fine. JD30793 | $10.00 |
| [Steinbeckiana] Valjean, Nelson. John Steinbeck The Errant Knight. San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1975, first edition, dust jacket. Hardcover. "An intimate biography of his California years," with several photographic illustrations, frontispiece photo of Steinbeck by Phillippe Halsman, Morrow 634. Fine in a rubbed (as usual) jacket. JD1973 | $25.00 |
| [Steinbeckiana] Valjean, Nelson. John Steinbeck The Errant Knight. San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1975, first edition, dust jacket. Hardcover. "An intimate biography of his California years," with several photographic illustrations, frontispiece photo of Steinbeck by Phillippe Halsman, Morrow 634. Fine. JD28796 | $45.00 |
| [Armed Services Editions] Van De Water, Frederic. A Home in the Country. NY, Armed Services Editions, n.d. (1945), first edition thus, wrappers. Softcover. No. 700 in this important series, "an adventure in serenity" and a "classic of country living," issued by the Council on Books in Wartime, designed to fit the pocket of a World War II American GI. Solid very good. JD34935 | $12.50 |
| [Armed Services Editions] Van Doren, Carl. Benjamin Franklin. NY, Armed Services Editions, n.d. (1944), first edition thus, wrappers. Softcover. No. K-30 in this important series, a biography, condensed by the author especially for this edition, issued by the Council on Books in Wartime, designed to fit the pocket of a World War II American GI. Very good plus. JD34290 | $15.00 |
| [Armed Services Editions] Van Doren, Mark. Shakespeare. NY, Armed Services Editions, n.d. (1946), first edition thus, wrappers. Softcover. No. 1142 in this important series, an interpretation and an accompaniment to the study of Shapespeare, issued by the Council on Books in Wartime, designed to fit the pocket of a World War II American GI. Good. JD35596 | $10.00 |
| [Steinbeckiana] Van Doren, Mark. The Private Reader. NY, Henry Holt, 1942, first edition, dust jacket. Hardcover. A Review Copy with review slip dated February 23 (1942), the book includes selected articles and reviews by Van Doren, including a review of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, pages 255-257, not recorded by Goldstone & Payne or Morrow. Fine in a very good jacket. JD28487 | $50.00 |
| [Armed Services Editions] Van Druten, John. The Voice of the Turtle. NY, Armed Services Editions, n.d. (1945), first edition thus, wrappers. Softcover. No. 815 in this important series, a comedy in three acts, issued by the Council on Books in Wartime, designed to fit the pocket of a World War II American GI. Solid very good. JD32826 | $15.00 |
| [Armed Services Editions] Van Druten, John. The Voice of the Turtle. NY, Armed Services Editions, n.d. (1945), first edition thus, wrappers. Softcover. No. 815 in this important series, a comedy play in three acts, issued by the Council on Books in Wartime, designed to fit the pocket of a World War II American GI. Very good plus. JD34522 | $15.00 |
| [Modern Literature] Van Dyke, Henry. Autographed Letter Signed. n.p. (NY), Henry Van Dyke, November 9, 1899, first edition. One sheet folded to make four pages, written to the Corresponding Editor of The Youth's Companion, Van Dyke, an American author and clergyman, offers his writing services to the periodical, "I should like/to send a story to the/Youth's Companion, because/I think it's a first-rate/paper, and because its/audience is (?) that a/man ought to be glad/to speak to./There are certain dif-/ficulties in the way./1. I am not a regular/writer of stories. They come/to me very slowly, and/capriciously. They take/their own time and their/own way. Until I know/them, I can't tell them./And when I know them/I don't dare to change/them. This makes my/work immensely (?) un-/certain./2. The next four stories/that come along are/already promised, if/they are (?). It is/not likely that more/than four will drop/in this winter./3. The price that is/paid for one of these/stories is $500, -- long/or short," he adds that if the difficulties can be overcome he would furnish a story the next spring or summer, signed and dated in full. One small scrape to first page, not affecting the text, else very good indeed. JD31421 | $350.00 |
| [Armed Services Editions] Vance, Ethel. Winter Meeting. NY, Armed Services Editions, n.d. (1946), first edition thus, wrappers. Softcover. No. 1152 in this important series, a novel, with a note about the author at the end, issued by the Council on Books in Wartime, designed to fit the pocket of a World War II American GI. Very good minus. JD35197 | $15.00 |
| [Modern Literature] Varley, John. Demon. NY, Putnam, 1984, first edition, first printing, dust jacket. Hardcover. Hugo and Nebula winner. The usual tanned pages, clipped jacket, else fine. JD1412 | $50.00 |
| [Miscellaneous] Veeck, Bill. Veeck -- As In Wreck. Evanston, Holtzman, 1962, first edition. Issued without dust jacket, bound in blue boards with (faux?) red leather spine, TEG, this is the autobiography of one of the great baseball promoters, Signed by Veeck, written with Ed Linn, originally published by G.P. Putnam's, this edition includes an introduction by the publisher, Jerome Holtzman. Fine. JD35627 | $100.00 |
| [Modern Literature] Vidal, Gore. Lincoln. NY, Random House, 1984, first edition. Issued without dust jacket, but with publisher's slipcase, this historical novel is one of 350 specially bound copies Signed by Vidal. Fine in publisher's slipcase. JD35635 | $250.00 |
| [Modern Literature] Vollmann, William T. You Bright and Risen Angels. NY, Atheneum, 1987, first American edition, first printing, dust jacket. Hardcover. Author's First Book, illustrated by him, it includes his "social gazette of the personalities interviewed for this book," Signed by Vollmann. Fine. JD27339 | $125.00 |
| [Modern Literature] Vonnegut, Kurt. Typed Letter Signed. n.p., Kurt Vonnegut, 1987, first edition. A single sheet, dated August 29, 1987, three paragraphs, a total of 16 lines, Signed in full by Vonnegut who had been queried as to why he used an Armenian as a character in his books, Rabo Karabekian made his first appearance in Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions and later appeared in his Bluebeard in which Vonnegut uses the memoirs of Karabekian as his novel, in part he writes, "I put an Armenian in an earlier book -- only because I like the sound of Armenian names and, of course, because they seem a gifted people. Whenever I start a novel, I have to ransack my brains for subjects which might be of interest not only to myself but to others. And Karabekian was there in the midst of all the junk in my attic, and I wondered what about him might be of universal interest these days. And this was it, of course: genocide," the letter is unpublished. Folded for mailing in its original envelope addressed by Vonnegut. JD30129 | $1,250.00 |
CONDITIONS OF SALE
Browse Books Listed by Author's Name Browse Armed Services Editions Books Listed by Issue Numbers | |