Fly Like a Bat Out of Hell collects the almost fifteen-year correspondence between two of America's most influential modern poets, Harold Norse and Charles Bukowski. Norse, then a tenuously established writer, acolyte of William Carlos Williams and one-time resident of the Beat Hotel, began exchanging letters with the fledgling bard of the downtrodden, Bukowski, in 1963. Their daily struggle for self-determination, recognition, and just a little money provides the dramatic arc of their ribald, thoughtful, often licentious, and always quotable correspondence. Sparring and exhorting, comforting and recriminating in terrific counterpoint, outdoing one another in scatological complaint, Norse and Bukowski intimately reveal the seldom seen realities of creative lives.

"A masterly study of a middle-aged woman waking up after 30 years passed in a coma induced by sleeping sickness. In her mind she is still 16, and her attempts to fathom the changed world into which she re-emerges is not only poignant and emotionally charged but, in the end, devastatingly brilliant theatre as well." -- -- www.doollee.com.

Dramatizes the conversation between an interrogator and his victims, a father, mother, and young son, and includes an interview with the playwright about the play's theme

First edition, first printing hardcover with unclipped dust jacket in very good condition. Jacket is scuffed and edges are creased and nicked. Board spine ends are a little bumped. Page block and page edges are tanned, with light foxing on the page block. Binding is sound and pages are clear. LW

Originally written in 1950, then revised and first published in 1992, The Dwarfs is Harold Pinter's only novel. Set in postwar Britain, The Dwarfs describes the intertwined lives and concerns of four young Londoners: Len, working at the Euston train station but fascinated by abstract mathematics; Mark, a sometime actor; and Virginia and Pete, a young couple trying to define their relationship amid the powerful, sometimes destructive forces at work among the four. In the evolution of this quadrilateral friendship and the strains it creates, Harold Pinter explores how ordinary lives are molded by the limitations and boundaries of sexuality, intimacy, and mortality. It is a world populated by dwarfs -- young people who have departed, only to leave emptiness. Funny, vivid, and haunting, The Dwarfs is a brilliantly intriguing and chillingly perceptive novel by a writer whose imagination has shaped our lives.

. 1980, bright clean copy

Although best known for his plays, Harold Pinter has also written an extensive and wide-ranging body of other work since 1948; prose, prose fiction, poetry and political writings. In this anthology Pinter presents his own selection, among which are "A Note on Shakespeare" (1950), a paean to the cricketer Len Hutton (1969), the short stories "Kullus" (1949) and "Girls" (1995), the poetry from "School Life" (1948), and political pieces - including many letters to the press - on the United States, Cuba, Kurdistan and Nicaragua.

California in the 1960s is a time of free love and peace on Earth. But the times, they are a'changing, and Gareth Brendan is trying his best to keep up. When his wealthy, powerful uncle gives him control of an underground newspaper, Gareth finds an outlet for all the radical thoughts and ideas he's kept inside. Suddenly, he's the head of an empire of casinos and clubs, movies and magazines, surrounded by models and pimps who cater to the ultra-rich. Dreams Die First is an explosive story of one man's vision of liberated sexuality and how he turns that vision into a life of fame and fantasy. But all that power comes at a price, as a ruthless underworld syndicate seeks to topple Gareth's throne. Harold Robbins, the world's bestselling novelist, does it again in Dreams Die First, a tale of power and passion that transports readers to another place and time.

From the author of The New York Times #1 bestselling novel The Carpetbaggers comes a hard-edged look at the seductive, high-stakes and often hypocritical world of religious revivalism and televangelists.... Spellbinder is the story of a genuine and charismatic believer known as "Preacher," who returns from the foxholes and horrors of Vietnam with a simple goal--to spread the word of peace, love, and charity. He immediately attracts a following as he moves from California communes to small surfing towns. "The Church," as his mobile flock is now known, is a culture that centers as much on sex and drugs as prayers, sacraments, and salvation. Despite a growing following, The Church is bordering on bankruptcy. As they reach what is surely the end of the line in Texas, a powerful billionaire witnesses Preacher and likes what he sees. Offered a platform for his heavenly message to reach millions, Preacher takes the leap into the new world of mass broadcasting the gospel. Before long, Preacher becomes one of the most powerful televangelists in the country, making influential friends and building a vast empire as the newest religious superstar. He finds his new success and status as "the" rock star entertainer of big-top religion intoxicating. Deep inside, though, he realizes that he's become just another televangelist selling everlasting salvation for an earthly price. Religion professes the only power... Preacher's power is love, but he meets greed, lust, and corruption from his believers. With a burning conscience, he faces a truly gut-wrenching choice--preserve his empire to continue to spread the word, or become the sacrificial lamb on the altar to expose the hypocrisy surrounding him.

Jack Lear is a predator driven by unbridled ambition. He makes a great fortune as a pioneering radio and television broadcaster, founds a network, and marries two beautiful socialites, but despite his conquests he continues to hunger for what he cannot have - the social respectability of old money. The women in his life are legion. His first marriage is to an exquisitely beautiful and shrewd WASP princess who turns him from the wealthy son of a Jewish scrap metal king into an elegant man, surrounded by tasteful trappings of wealth; his second marriage is to a lovely English aristocrat of impeccable lineage and sophisticated style, who introduces him to international high society. But nothing can ever tame Jack Lear's need to succeed, to overcome his enemies and rivals, to expand his network - until, finally, a threat from where he least expects it promises to tear his beloved empire out of his hands...

Harold Rosenberg was undoubtedly the most important American art critic of the twentieth century. It was he who first coined the term "Action Painters" to refer to the American Abstract Expressionists such as Pollock, Kline, and de Kooning. Rosenberg's seminal writings on this movement, as well as on other artists such as Newman and Rothko, appear in The Tradition of the New (1959), his first and most influential book; its effects on subsequent art criticism, and the practice of art itself, are still felt today. The essays in this book are not limited to the art world, however: He also discusses poetry, political and cultural theory, and popular culture. As wide-ranging, independent, and deeply probing as the essays of Walter Benjamin, Harold Rosenberg's The Tradition of the New is a true classic of twentieth-century criticism.

In 1906, Harriet Levy was talked into moving to Paris by her friend Alice B. Toklas and suddenly found herself immersed in a strange world peopled by artists who spoke a language she could not understand--a colorful world that she could only remotely observe in black and white. Paris Portraits is a short masterpiece. This sparkling manuscript, long hidden in the archives of the University of California's Bancroft Library, brings to life a vibrant and mythic time and place. Through Harriet's eyes, we circulate among the artists and patrons in the salons of Gertrude and Sarah Stein, overhear conversations between the up-and-coming Matisse and his students, and see Gertrude Stein's reaction when she learns of Picasso putting his hand on Toklas's knee. We're present when, while reading the poetry of Tagore, Harriet looks up and for the first time, sees--really sees and understands with the heart--what Matisse is doing.

Rare Book

First American hardcover publication. Written in 1985, it is the first story in the "Stainless Steel Rat" universe timeline.

Now in paperback--Harrison's best short fiction, including a new Stainless Steel Rat story. Assembled here are 14 stories that span time and space from the England of old to empires millenia from now. Includes "Roommates", the original basis for the movie Soylent Green. Illustrated.