Alexander Grubb (5 results)

paperback, Condition: Very Good, Lines Review, Loanhead, c.1995, trade paperbk., 64pp., VG $.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Early reprint. 8vo. [16]3-357p. Large black and white photo of the author on the rear panel of the dust jacket. Red cloth with letters in red on black fields on the front cover and the spine. Fore-edge untrimmed. Just touches of wear to extremities, a couple of light spots on front cover, cloth clean and bright, previous owner's name and address sticker on front free pastedown, else near fine to fine with no internal markings. Dust jacket has a few small chips missing and a 3 inch tear down the rear gutter with nothing missing, but not price-clipped. Born in WEst Virginia in 1919, DaviS Alexander Grubb grew up along the Ohio River, which influenced his later writing. He had to abandon his study of painting because of an eye difficulty, but was able to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a writer. His first novel was THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1951) and he also wrote WATCHMAN (1961). A DREAM OF KINGS appears to be his second novel.

Softcover. Condition: Fair. First Edition. First printing, trade paperback with side-stapled binding, has a pull to the front hinge, chipped bumps to the spine ends and cover corners, heavy rubbing to the covers with an "X" penciled to the tail of the back, wear with short tears and creasing to the edges, a split to the lower rear hinge, creasing with areas of peeling to the spine, and a date stamped to the head of the text block. Overall, a Fair copy.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 317 pages. Octavo (8 1/2" x 6") bound in original publisher's green cloth with white and shadow black to cover and spine in original pictorial jacket. Inscribed by the author. First Edition. Davis Grubb was an American novelist and short story writer. Born in Moundsville, West Virginia, Grubb wanted to combine his creative skills as a painter with writing and as such attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, his color blindness was a handicap he could not overcome and as such gave up on painting to dedicate himself to writing fiction. He did however do a number of drawings and sketches during the course of his career, some of which were incorporated into his writings. In 1940, Grubb moved to New York City where he worked at NBC radio as a writer while using his free time to write short stories. In the mid 1940s he was successful in selling several short stories to major magazines and in the early 1950s he starting writing a full length novel. Influenced by accounts of economic hardship by depression-era Americans that his mother had seen first hand as a social worker, Grubb produced a dark tale that mixed the plight of poor children and adults with that of the evil inflicted by others. His first novel, The Night of the Hunter, became an instant bestseller and was voted a finalist for the 1955 National Book Award. That same year, the book was made into a motion picture that is now regarded as a classic. Deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Davis Grubb went on to write a further nine novels and several collections of short stories. His 1969 novel Fools' Parade would also be made into a motion picture starring James Stewart. Some of Grubb's short stories were adapted for television by Alfred Hitchcock and by Rod Serling for his Night Gallery series. Grubb died in New York City in 1980. His novel Ancient Lights was published posthumously in 1982, and St. Martins Press published eighteen of his short stories in a book collection titled You Never Believe Me and Other Stories. A young boy is brutally murdered in the Southern town of Elizabethville while five people watch. In Shadow of My Brother Davis Grubb goes back through three generations of the Wilson family to build a narrative of terror-not only of this murder but of the special yet familiar evil that spawned a murderer. In times after that night there were those among them who swore that a single bolt of lightning had slashed through the sky; lighting the faces of the just and the unjust, of sleepers and the watchers of the night, and the slain and the slayers. This is a poignant, unrelenting, almost insufferable description of the pathology of racism and sex, what it portrays about his dimension of the American inheritance is pathetically true and immediately timely. Condition: Inscribed on front end paper. Touch of sunning to edges. Jacket lightly soiled, front fold over flap creased, some rubbing to spine ends else a better than very good copy in like jacket. Inscribed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 275 pages. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5 3/4") bound in original publisher's quarter blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine over black boards with gilt lettering to cover in original pictorial jacket. Inscribed by the author. First edition. This is an extraordinary novel-tender, grotesquely comic and frightening. Under the shadow of the state prison lies an old West Virginia river town called Adena, its peace and security sedulously watched over by Sheriff Luther Alt. Hearing his boots ring slowly down the ancient brick sidewalks, folks could feel quite safe in their beds at night. The unexpected did not happen in Adena, until the death of you Cole Blake. The son of one of the town's leading families, he is found murdered. To discover why a young man in love has been shot to death, Davis Grubb enters a dark tangle of events and human emotions. Writing with brooding power, he composes an unforgettable gallery of Adena men and women. Each of them stands distinct, and they are the sheriff's two daughters, Jill and Cris, as different from each other as the light from the dark. And the Sheriff himself, the Watchman, a man of stoic nobility. The Watchman is a poetic melodrama. Condition: Inscribed on front endpaper "For Peter Johnson - with profoundest admiration for his dedication to a noble calling and with thanks for his friendship. Always, Davis Grubb 1961" with Grubb's drawn design. Corners gently bumped. Jacket edge wear with some small chips, some loss to spine head, corners lightly chipped else a very good copy in like jacket. Inscribed by Author(s).