Lot 149: BOWLES, PAUL.

BOWLES, PAUL. COLLECTION OF TEN WORKS, ALL PRESENTATION COPIES INSCRIBED TO WILLIAM ("WOODS") GRAY ("FOR BILL G. COME BACK AGAIN, LOVE, PAUL...", "FOR BILL, ALL MY LOVE, PAUL...", "FOR BILL: ANTICIPATING HIS RETURN VISIT..." ETC): The Sheltering Sky. 1949, cloth slightly torn; another copy, fifth printing, specially bound in red morocco gilt, [inscribed "for Bill with love. (This is probably the handsomest copy in existence.)..."]; The Delicate Prey and other stories. 1950, dust-jacket (torn) ; A Little Stone. London: John Lehmann, 1950, spine torn; Let it Come Down. 1952; The Spider's House. 1955, dust-jacket; The Hours after Noon, London: Heinemann, 1959, dust-jacket; Their Heads are Green and the their Hands are Blue. 1963, dust-jacket; A Hundred Camels in the Courtyard. San Francisco: City Light Books, 1962, original paper covers; Up above the World. 1966, dust-jacket; some with ownership signature of Woods Gray; all New York: (New Directions, Random House or Simon and Schuster) and first American or first English editions and in original cloth except where stated; 8vo (10)

The academic and teacher Dr William ("Woods") Shelton Gray, Jr (1926-1993) was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and received his Ph.D from the University of Exeter. He established a correspondence with T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden (who dedicated his poem "The Aliens" to him) and a number of other English and American writers and poets. His most intimate correspondent appears to have been Paul Bowles, whom he visited a number of times in Tangier.