Four items. Comprises The Sheltering Sky. [New York]: New Directions, [1949]. First edition, signed by Bowles on the half-title. publisher's tan cloth, in the dust jacket (unclipped, $2.75 price) designed by Alvin Lustig. 8 x 5 1/4 inches (20.25 x 13.5 cm); 318 pp. The jacket lightly soiled, a few small losses and minor tears to extremities, the upper portion of the spine showing minor damp staining (not affecting the contents), for all that a very presentable copy in an unrestored jacket; together with [idem]. Two Years Beside the Strait. Tangier Journal 1987-9. First English edition, inscribed in black ink by Bowles "For Lynne with best Paul 17/I/91 Tangier." Publisher's cream boards in dust jacket. 7 3/4 x 5 inches (20 x 1.75 cm); 80 pp.; NUTTING, CHERIE. Paul Bowles. Gelatin silver print, 12 x 8 inches (305 x 205 mm). inscribed by Paul Bowles in the lower margin "I like this picture. Paul Bowles". Fine. Framed; MRABET, MOHAMMED. [Eldritch Faces]. Large untitled drawing. Black and colored ink on paper, signed and dated 1995.18 x 14 inches. Fine. Framed.

An appealing group pertaining to Paul Bowles and his circle, including a signed copy of the first American edition of his best-known work, another book inscribed by him, an inscribed copy of a remarkable photograph of the author taken by a member of his circle, and a splendidly eerie example of a drawing by the author, artist and poet Mohammed Mrabet, Bowles' longtime friend and protegé. The Sheltering Sky had been intended for publication by Doubleday, but was refused by them, whereupon it was published by John Lehmann in the UK, with the present American edition succeeding it a month later. It is rare signed.