Massie, Robert K.
CATHERINE THE GREAT: Portrait of a Woman
NY: Random House, 2011

First edition. Octavo. 625 pp; 16 pp color photographs; select bibliography; index. Hardcover with dustjacket. Near Fine/Near Fine, a clean, unmarked copy; unclipped jacket bright, slight creasing at head of spine.
Inventory number #011714

Monro, Jean [signed]
11 MONTPELIER STREET: Memoirs of an Interior Decorator
London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988

First edition. Octavo. xiii, 178 pp; color & b/w photos; index. Cloth with dustjacket. Fine in price-clipped near fine dj. SIGNED by author on title page.
Inventory number #011360

Fowler, Gene
BEAU JAMES
NY: Viking Press, 1949

Octavo. x, 389 pp, illustrated with 16 pp of b/w photographs; index. Cloth with dustjacket. Near fine/VG; jacket has small chip to top of front panel and near the heel and a couple of small closed tears and light edgewear. The chronicle of James J. Walker, New York City's 100th mayor, known to millions as "Jimmy".
Inventory number #011315

Staggs, Sam
INVENTING ELSA MAXWELL: How an Irrepressible Nobody Conquered High Society, Hollywood, the Press, and the World
NY: St. Martin's Press, 2012

First printing. Octavo. 340 pp; 32 pp of b/w photography; extensive bibliography; index. Hardcover with dustjacket. A new, unused copy. A clean, unmarked copy; unclipped jacket glossy & bright with no wear. The first biography of Elsa Maxwell who rose from the San Francisco middle class to the heights of society in New York, London, Paris, Venice, and Monte Carlo.
Inventory number #011304

Gruen, John
ERIK BRUHN: Danseur Noble
NY: Viking Press, 1979

First edition. Octavo. 252 pp; b/w photographs; appendix - roles danced, productions; filmography; bibliography; index. Hardcover with dustjacket. VG/VG, a clean, unmarked copy; unclipped jacket. The biography of Erik Bruhn (1928-1986), Danish ballet dancer noted for his outstanding classical technique, who appeared mainly as a guest artist with North American and European companies.
Inventory number #011196

Salter, Elizabeth
THE LAST YEARS OF A REBEL A Memoir of Edith Sitwell
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967

Second printing. Octavo. 208 pp; frontispiece & 11 b/w photographs; index. Green cloth with gilt lettering in dj. VG/VG, a clean, unmarked copy; price-clipped jacket has light edgewear. Dame Edith Sitwell was 69 when she invited Elizabeth Salter, a young Australian, to be her secretary. Over the next eight years she became friend, confidante and aide-de-camp, in the thick of the crises, the controversy and the celebrity that surrounded the British poet and critic.
Inventory number #010907

Skinner, Cornelia Otis
MADAME SARAH
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966

First printing (stated). Octavo. 356 pp; b/w photogarphs; bibliography; index. Cloth with dustjacket. Near Fine/Near Fine, a clean, unmarked copy, top corner bumped; unclipped jacket has one short edge tear, minor wear to spine ends, price in ink next to printed price on jacket flap. Biography of the French stage and early film actress, who made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and then in Europe and America. Jacket poster by Alphonse Mucha shows Ms. Bernhardt in one of her most famous roles in La Dame aux Camelias.
Inventory number #010878

Wall, Joseph F.
Andrew Carnegie's Hogmanay or A Child's New Year in Calvinist Scotland
NY: Oxford University Press, 1970

First edition. 6" x 4.25". 25 pp; color illustrations by Tim Gaydos. Stapled wraps. Near Fine, a clean, unmarked copy; minor wear to extremities. The text was adapted from Chapter III of the author's biography of Andrew Carnegie.
Inventory number #010797

Forge, Andrew
RAUSCHENBERG
NY: Harry N. Abrams / Meridian Books, 1978

Octavo. 87 pp; 25 color & 26 b/w plates; autobiography; bibliography. Paperback with French flaps. Good, covers soiled, a few edge tears. A condensation of the full-length monograph previously published in hard cover by Abrams in 1969.
Inventory number #010639

Crosland, Margaret
JEAN COCTEAU. A Biography
NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956

First American edition. Octavo. x, 238 pp; b/w photographs; 4 drawings by the author; extracts from letters; bibliography; some books consulted; index. Cloth with dustjacket. VG/VG-, a clean, unmarked copy; jacket with moderate wear - 1-in. x 1-in. chip at top edge of front panel, spine ends lightly chipped, small loss at top edge of back panel, a few short edge tears, rubbing & two tears at front flap fold. Biography of novelist, poet, essayist, critic, playwright, cinematographer, and artist Jean Cocteau, which includes a critical history of his creative work. His friends included Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Satie, Picasso, Raymond Radiguet, and the Six.
Inventory number #010118

Dalley, Jan
DIANA MOSLEY
NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000

First American edition. Octavo. xvi, 318 pp; b/w photographs; bibliography; index. Cloth-backed boards with dustjacket. Near Fine/Near Fine, a clean, unmarked copy; unclipped jacket lightly soiled. A biography of Diana Mitford, the Mitford sister who married Oswald Mosley, the leader of Britain's fascists.
Inventory number #010012

Saroyan, Aram
TRIO: Oona Chaplin, Carol Matthau, Gloria Vanderbilt: Portrait of an Intimate Friendship
NY: Simon & Schuster, 1985

First printing. Octavo. 256 pp. Cloth-backed boards with dustjacket. Near Fine/Near Fine, a clean, unmarked copy; unclipped jacket has light toning at top & bottom edges of flaps.
Inventory number #009990

Panov, Valery & George Feifer
TO DANCE
NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978

Book Club edition. Octavo. xiv, 397 pp; b/w photographs; index. Black cloth with silver lettering in dustjacket. VG/VG. Four photos that appear in book laid in. A clean, unmarked copy; light ink stain on bottom edge, jacket shows moderate rubbing, with light chipping at top & bottom of spine.
Inventory number #009711

Tebbel, John
A CERTAIN CLUB: One Hundred Years of the Players
NY: The Players, 1989

Octavo. 348 pp; color & b/w photographs. Red cloth with gilt-lettered spine, all edges gilt in illustrated slipcase.
Inventory number #009526

Bush-Brown, Louise
MEN WITH GREEN PENS: Lives of the Great Writers on Plants in Early Times
Philadelphia: Dorrance & Company, 1964

Octavo. 161 pp; (12) b/w illustrations; bibliography. Gilt-lettered green cloth in dustjacket. VG/VG, clean, unmarked copy; small chip at top of jacket spine. The author traces the history of plant investigation from Theophrastus (372 B.C.) through the era of the great herbalists of the 16th century. Includes Dioscorides, Albertus Magnus, Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Otto Brunfels, Leonhard Fuchs, William Turner, Nicolas Monardes, and John Gerard.
Inventory number #009495

Bloch-Dano, Evelyne
MADAME PROUST: A Biography
Chicago: Univ of Chicago Press, 2007

First edition. Octavo. 310 pp; b/w photo plates. Cloth with dustjacket. Near fine in near fine jacket. Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time opens with one of the most famous scenes in literature, as young Marcel, unable to fall asleep, waits anxiously for his mother to come to his bedroom and kiss him good night. Proust's own mother is central to the meaning of his masterpiece, and she has always held a special role in literary history, both as a character and as a decisive influence on the great writer’s career. This is a biography of his mother - Jeanne Weil Proust.
Inventory number #008804

Mannes, Marya
OUT OF MY TIME
Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1971

First edition. Octavo. 251 pp; 48 b/w illustrations. Publisher's burgundy cloth with dustjacket. VG/VG, small erasure spot on front flyleaf, else a clean, unmarked copy; price-clipped jacket lightly chipped at top & bottom of spine, short edge tear, light soil on back panel. Autobiography of Marya Mannes (1904-1990) American writer and critic, known for her insightful observations of American life. Marya describes her childhood in an uncommon family - her parents, Clara Damrosch & David Mannes founded the Mannes College of Music, and her musician brother co-invented the Kodachrome process - and her uncommon education.
Inventory number #008180

Xing, Wei
Yin Zhaoyang's New Work
Beijing: Tang Contemporary Art, 2007

Quarto. 84 pp; illustrated with full page color plates of works in the exhibition; artist biography. Text in Chinese and English. Paperback Near Fine. Catalogue of Zhaoyang's solo exhibition at Tang Contemporary Art Beijing in 2007.
Inventory number #008033

Hastings, Selina
NANCY MITFORD : A Biography
NY: E.P. Dutton, 1986

First American edition. Octavo. xii, 274 pp; 16 pages of b/w photographs; bibliography; index. Cloth-backed boards with dustjacket. VG/VG, previous owner name at top of front free endpaper.
Inventory number #008014

Downes, Kerry
SIR JOHN VANBRUGH: A Biography
NY: St. Martin's Press, 1987

First American edition. Octavo. 560 pp; 40 b/w photographs, 22 elevations, floor plans & drawings; chronology; genealogical tables; bibliography & references; glossary; index. Cloth with dustjacket. Near Fine/VG+, unclipped jacket spine lightly sunned. The biography of a remarkably multitalented man whose life spanned the Restoration and the Early Georgian period. As an architect, he designed Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace; as a playwright, he wrote two of the Restoration's best comedies.
Inventory number #007958