Black Arrow painting by N.C. Wyeth

A Splendid Collection
of
Nordhoff
and
Hall

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Nordhoff and Hall - their names breathe of the South Seas in fiction and in fact. Charles Bernard Nordhoff (1887-1947) was born in England of American parents, raised in southern California, and educated at Stanford and Harvard Universities. He drove an ambulance in France in 1916 and later joined the Escadrille Lafayette, where he met fellow flier James Norman Hall. Disenchanted with the postwar world, in 1920 the two authors moved to the tropical island of Tahiti. There they remained residents for many years.

Nordhoff's first book, The Fledgling (1919), is an account, in diary form, of his flying experiences during World War I. Both The Pearl Lagoon, a South Sea adventure, and Picaro, a novel about two brothers in Guadaloupe whose destinies were bound up with airplanes, appeared in 1924. The Derelict (1925), another novel of adventure in the South Seas, was the last book Nordhoff wrote alone. From then until his death he collaborated with Hall.

Novelist, short-story writer, historian, memoirist, Iowa native and Grinnell College graduate James Norman Hall (1887-1951) actually started his adult career as a social worker in Boston. He served in the British and American armies during World War I. His plane was shot down over enemy lines and he became a prisoner in Germany for six months. After the war Hall travelled throughout the South Seas and settled in Tahiti. These experiences contributed much of the data for his writings. Alone, Hall wrote Kitchener's Mob (1916), High Adventure (1918), On the Stream of Travel (1926), Mid-Pacific (1928), Flying with Chaucer (1930), The Tale of A Shipwreck (1934), The Friends (1939), Dr. Dogbody's Leg (1940), Under a Thatched Roof (1941), Lost Island (1944), A Word for His Sponsor (1949), The Far Lands (1950), The Forgotten One and Other True Tales of the South Seas (1952), the posthumously published autobiography My Island Home (1952) and Tahiti, Voyage Through Paradise (1953). In his fiction he had as an almost constant collaborator Charles Nordhoff.

The most famous of their collaborations was a trilogy based on factual records: Mutiny on the Bounty (1932), Men Against the Sea (1934) and Pitcairn's Island (1934).

The collaborators also wrote The Lafayette Flying Corps (1920), Faery Lands of the South Seas (1921), Falcons of France (1929), The Hurricane (1936), The Dark River (1938), Botany Bay (1941), Men Without Country (1942) and High Barbaree (1945). According to the Dictionary of American Biography, "it was Nordhoff who provided the narrative pace and the action-reaction pattern of character on character, and it was Hall who caught the exact descriptive detail and whose deep philosophic introspection gave moments of pause and reflection".

Cinematic versions of Botany Bay, The Hurricane, Men Without County, No More Gas, and High Barbaree have been made, while there have been at least a trio of successful film adaptations of Mutiny on the Bounty.


HALL, James Norman. Kitchener's Mob. The Adventures of an American in the British Army. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1916. Octavo, original red cloth, stamped and lettered in black, pictorial endpapers, pictorial dust jacket (with closed 2-1/2 inch tear upper left on front, slight loss of paper at corners and spine ends, lightly dust soiled, but still bright and crisp). Spine very slightly faded. A fine copy in the rare pictorial dust jacket. First edition. Signed by the author on half title "James Norman Hall".
7576

Collection of Nordhoff and Hall first editions
HALL, James Norman. 3 page mimeographed copy of a highly interesting Typed Letter, Signed. American Ambulance Hospital of Paris: 1917. Approximately 14 x 8.5 inches, three loose sheets. Staple marks in upper left corners, first page a little browned, slight creasing right corners, else fine.
A three page typed letter to "Dear Mr. and Mrs. D." on the letterhead of the American Ambulance Hospital of Paris dated Neuilly-sur-Seine 10 August, 1917, and signed in type "Jamie". The letter talks about his being injured and having spent 10 days in a big French hospital at the front and then been transferred to this one. He goes into detail about how he was treated, his nurse "was the widow of a famous French general who has been killed in this war. She has lost everything - home, husband, son and the loss is written on her beautiful face. ..." He then goes on some more about his hospital experiences and then begins to describe how he was wounded "We went out on patrol, twelve of us ... we were to meet over Soissons at 10,000 feet and then divide into two groups ... I was a little late in getting away, my motor giving a little trouble in starting ... when reached rendezvous, the others had gone on ... I went down the lines about to Rheims without seeing anything of my patrol ... saw a group of seven machines quite a way back of the German lines... went to have a look at them ...thinking they might be our fellows, ...discovered they were Bosche!" He goes on to describe the incident and how he was rescued in great detail. Further on he says "Now about aeroplane motors Mrs. D. I am afraid I can't be very helpful for you know what talent I have doesn't run along the line of mechanics". Towards the end he says "I think that all the American aviators are to be taken over by the U.S. Government shortly. We hear many rumors, the most persistent one being that all of us are to be commissioned officers. Nothing has happened as yet. ... But I shall not regret serving as a member of the Legion Etrangere until the end of the war." An extremely interesting letter written by a remarkable man.
12185

HALL, James Norman. High Adventure. A Narrative of Air Fighting in France. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1918. Illustrated. Octavo, original red cloth, stamped and lettered in black, pictorial endpapers, pictorial dust jacket (small chip from spine heel, a few small tears (closed) at top edge). Inscription on front free endpaper, else fine. First edition. Rare in dust jacket.
23317

HALL, James Norman. Typed Letter, signed, to Mr. Pond. Colfax, Iowa: December 24, 1919. Octavo, 19 lines on off white paper, housed in brown cloth slipcase with chemise, morocco label. Fine condition. Signed "James N. Hall".

The addressee is J.B. Pond of the Pond Lyceum Bureau, under whose auspices the reluctant Hall had been induced to undertake a series of lectures that autumn about wartime aviation.

Hall is writing Pond to thank him "for insisting that I see it through" referring to the just completed lecture tour that Pond arranged for him. He goes on ,"My friend Nordhoff and I are starting for Tahiti, in he Society Islands, early in January. We expect to be gone for at least a year, and mean to have all sorts of wierd [sic] adventures before we return".
24112

HALL, James Norman and NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard. The Lafayette Flying Corps. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1920. Two volumes. Illustrated . Quarto, original blue cloth decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt, top edges gilt. Edges minimally rubbed, some corners a trifle bumped. First edition.
The first collaboration by the two authors. Both Nordhoff and Hall were members of the famous Lafayette Escadrille, the World War I group of American flyers in France. After the war they assembled and wrote this massive history of the Air Corps which was financially underwritten by a couple of wealthy members of the group. Houghton Mifflin lavishly printed and illustrated the work, which was issued in a small edition.
7578

HALL, James Norman. On the Stream of Travel. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1926. Octavo, original green cloth stamped in blind, lettered in gilt, pictorial endpapers, pictorial dust jacket (slightly chipped at top and bottom of spine). Fine. First edition.
7586

HALL, James Norman. Mid-Pacific. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1928. Octavo, original blue buckram cloth, lettered in gilt, pictorial dust jacket (spine slightly browned). Covers with moderate fading, else fine. First edition.
7580

HALL, James Norman. Mid-Pacific. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1928. Octavo, original smooth blue cloth decoratively stamped in blind with a medallion on front cover, lettered in gilt, pictorial dust jacket (repaired at lower edge, a few small holes in folds, slightly browned spine, a trifle chipped at bottom edge). Fine. First edition, a variant binding from the above, priority unknown.
7581Botany Bay by Nordhoff and Hall

HALL, James Norman. Under the South. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd, 1928. Octavo, original blue cloth decoratively stamped in blind on front cover, lettered in gilt, printed blue dust jacket (spine faded and browned, some browning along edges, small split in upper spine). Spine a little faded, a few "bloom" spots on covers, else fine. First edition thus.
A compilation, mostly extracted from Nordhoff and Hall's Faery Lands of the South Seas, 1921 and On the Stream of Travel 1926.
24367

HALL, James Norman. Flying With Chaucer. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1930. Octavo, original blue cloth, decoratively stamped in red, spine lettered in red, dust jacket (one 1-3/4" vertical tear from top of spine on front panel, a couple of minor tears on lower edge). Spine very slightly faded, else fine. First edition.
7575

HALL, James Norman. Mother Goose Land. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1930. Illustrated in black and white by H. I. Bacharach. Quarto, original pictorial boards printed in yellow, blue, red, brown and black, pictorial endpapers. Spine a little browned and rubbed, else fine. First edition.
The author's rare children's book.
23391

HALL, James Norman. The Tale of a Shipwreck. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1934. Octavo, original blue cloth, printed paper labels on front cover and spine, pictorial dust jacket (spine slightly browned). Fine. First edition.
7582

HALL, James Norman. Doctor Dogbody's Leg. N.p: Redbook Magazine, 1938-39. Two volumes, privately printed for friends of the magazine in which the stories originally appeared. They all concernt he adventures of a British Naval surgeon. Octavo, original two-tone green cloth (Volume I), two-tone blue cloth (Volume II), printed paper labels on front covers. Inside of rear cover of volume I slightly browned, else fine. Printed invitation to "...listen to the swashbuckling Dr. F. Dogbody..." from the author affixed to front paste down of volume I.
7604

HALL, James Norman. The Friends. Muscatine: The Prairie Press, 1939. Octavo, original green cloth, lettered in gilt on spine, glassine wrapper as issued. Fine. First edition. One of 380 copies.
7587

HALL, James Norman. Doctor Dogbody's Leg. Boston: Little, Brown, 1940. With drawings by Warren Chappell. Octavo, original brown cloth, stamped in black, lettered in gilt, pictorial dust jacket (rear panel with a few faint foxing marks). Fine. First edition thus.
7603

[HALL, James Norman] . GRAVEL, Fern aka. Oh Millersville!. Muscatine: The Prairie Press, 1940. Octavo, original brown cloth, lettered in black on spine, printed dust jacket (Spine a bit browned and with loss of paper at top edge, not affecting lettering). Fine. First edition.
A literary hoax by James Norman Hall. It gulled the leading critics of the day. For instance, the New York Times gushed "we have found the last Sappho of Iowa!".
23453

[HALL, James Norman] . GRAVEL, Fern aka. Oh Millersville!. Muscatine: The Prairie Press, 1940. Octavo, original brown cloth, lettered in black on spine, printed dust jacket (spine and edges a bit browned, slightly chipped and rubbed at edges). Fine. Second printing, with the disclaimer on the dust jacket reading "Note: This second printing was not printed at the Prairie Press," and with the laudatory reviews on the back headed "This little Iowa schoolgirld of forty years ago has completely captured the hearts of America's leading critics, as she will yours.".
23454

HALL, James Norman. Under a Thatched Roof. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1942. Octavo, original blue cloth, lettered in brown, pictorial dust jacket (rear panel a little dust soiled and smudged). Spine a trifle sunned, else fine. First edition. Inscribed and signed on the half title "With warm regards to / Cush and Helen / Jamie".
23603

HALL, James Norman. Lost Island. Boston: Little, Brown, 1944. Octavo, original teal cloth stamped and lettered in blue, pictorial dust jacket (barely rubbed at spine ends). Lower edge slightly faded at spine, else fine. First edition. Inscribed and signed by the author on half title "For Cush and Helen / from a somewhat dis- / mayed and bewildered / islander lookon on at / life in the U.S.S. in / these post-war days / Jamie / Melrose / October 26th 1946".
23604

HALL, James Norman. A Word For His Sponsor. Boston: Little, Brown, 1949. Octavo, original blue cloth, stamped in blind on front cover, lettered in gilt on spine, dust jacket (one tiny tear at bottom of front panel). Fine. First edition. A narrative poem, signed by the author on front free endpaper.
7601

HALL, James Norman. The Far Lands. Boston: Little, Brown, 1950. Octavo, original green cloth, lettered in green on spine, pictorial dust jacket (very lightly chipped and browned on edges). Fine. First edition.
7605

HALL, James Norman. The Forgotten One and Other True Tales of the South Seas. Boston: Little, Brown, 1952. Octavo, original tan cloth stamped in green, lettered in green on spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
7585

HALL, James Norman. My Island Home. Boston: Little, Brown, (1952). Illustrated with photographs. Octavo, green cloth with cream cloth spine lettered in green, pictorial dust jacket (small piece missing from bottom of spine, small horizontal line on front panel, rear panel a trifle dust soiled). Spine and hinge over front endpapers a little foxed, else fine. First edition.
7599

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. Mutiny on the Bounty. New York: The Heritage Press, Illustrated by Fletcher Martin. Quarto, original cream cloth pictorially stamped in and lettered in red, in publisher's box (a little rubbed). Spine a little browned, else fine. With the publisher's prospectus..
With a preface to this edition by Nordhoff and Hall and a 35 page appendix being an excerpt from the biography of Peter Haywood, one of the survivors of the mutiny.
23300

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard. The Fledgling. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1919. Octavo, original blue boards decoratively stamped in darker blue, printed paper labels on front cover and spine. Spine a trifle sunned and slight brownish staining at top, rear cover with partial light waterstaining. A much better copy than it sounds. First edition.
23576

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. Faery Lands of the South Seas. New York: Harcourt & Brothers, 1921. Illustrated by George A. Picken. Octavo, original green cloth pictorially stamped and lettered in gilt, pictorial endpapers, pictorial dust jacket (back panel slightly browned). Front endpapers very slightly browned. Fine. First edition. Extremely scare in dust jacket.
This book vividly evokes the islands of the Pacific at a time when they were little visited and known, and their inhabitants lived the way they had lived for generations.
7584

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. Faery Lands of the South Seas. Garden City: Garden City Publishing, (1921). Octavo, original green cloth stamped and lettered in orange, top edge stained yellow, pictorial dust jacket. Ink inscription on half-title. Fine.
7583

NORDHOFF, Charles. Picaro. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1924. Octavo, original brown cloth lettered in darker brown. Upper corners and a few leaves a tad bumped, else fine. First edition with the code letters "H-Y" on copyright page.
23341

NORDHOFF, Charles. The Pearl Lagoon. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1924. Octavo, original brown ribbed cloth lettered in black, pictorial dust jacket (minutely dust soiled at upper edge, a tiny (1/8) inch hole on front panel and a very few tiny edge nicks). Lightly rubbed at lower edges, name erased from front free endpaper, else fine. First edition.
23355

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard. The Derelict. Boston: Little, Brown, 1928. Illustrated by Courtney Allen. Octavo, original blue cloth lettered in black, pictorial dust jacket (slightly chipped, a few small tears, spine a little browned). Fine. First edition.
7592

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. Falcons of France. A Tale of Youth and the Air. Boston: Little, Brown, 1929. Illustrated by A. Vimnera. Octavo, original blue lettered in red, top edge stained red, dust jacket (small vertical tear at top edge of front panel, a few trifling chips). Fine. First edition.
The only signed copy in dust jacket we have ever seen. A novel of the famous Lafayette Escadrille, the group of American volunteer pilots in World War I France before the United States entered the conflict.
7579

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard. The Island Wreck. London: Methuen & Co, (1929). Octavo, original gray cloth decorated in orange, lettered in gilt. Spine lightly faded, else fine. First English edition.
This was originally published in the U.S. as The Derelict . Retitled for the English edition with the type reset and the illustrations deleted.
23452

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. Mutiny on the Bounty. Boston: Little, Brown, 1932. Octavo, original blue cloth pictorially stamped in white and silver, lettered in silver, dust jacket (a few tiny chips, rear panel a little browned on edges) illustrated by Henry C. Pitz. Spine and top and bottom edges a little faded, front endpapers slightly browned from some offsetting, else fine. First edition in the seldom found first state with the plain endpapers.
7589Mutiny on the Bounty

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. Pitcairn's Island. Boston: Harcourt & Brothers, 1934. Octavo, original orange cloth pictorially stamped in cream and silver, lettered in silver, pictorial endpapers, pictorial dust jacket (a few tiny chips) illustrated by Henry C. Pitz . Fine. First edition.
The tale of the mutineers subsequent life on a remote Pacific island.
7588

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. Men Against the Sea. Boston: Little, Brown, 1934. Octavo, original green cloth decoratively stamped and lettered in white and silver, endpaper maps, pictorial dust jacket (spine slightly faded, upper edge and spine heel a little rubbed). Spine and edges a tad faded, else fine. First edition of the scarcest volume in the famous trilogy.
The chronicle of Captain Bligh's 3,000 mile odyssey in a twenty-three foot open boat.
18159

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. The Hurricane. Boston: Little, Brown, 1936. Octavo, original blue cloth pictorially stamped in cream and silver, lettered in silver, dust jacket (spine a trifle browned) illustrated by N.C. Wyeth, with the scarce publisher's advertisment printed on a wrap around band. Few copies have survived thus. Edges a little browned, spine slightly faded, else fine. First edition.
.7591

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. The Bounty Trilogy Comprising the Three Volumes, Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea & Pitcairn's Island. Boston: Little, Brown, 1936. Illustrated by Henry C. Pitz. Octavo, original blue cloth decoratively stamped and lettered in silver and white, map endpapers, pictorial dust jacket (bright with images of each individual book's dust jacket). Spine a little faded, light dust soiling of edges, else fine. First edition thus. Inscribed and signed by the author, James Norman Hall on half title page.
This volume contains a preface by the authors written for this edition, and is illustrated by Henry C. Pitz, and the 1940 edition by N.C. Wyeth.
24337

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. The Hurricane. New York: Blue Ribbon Books, (1936). Dust jacket by N.C. Wyeth. Octavo, original blue cloth pictorially stamped and lettered in black, top edge stained yellow, pictorial dust jacket (two short nicks on back panel). Fine. Photoplay edition, illustrated withs scenes from the film.
A major 1938 Samuel Goldwyn production had Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour as the star-crossed lovers heading a strong cast, including Mary Astor, Raymond Massey, C. Aubrey Smith, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell and Jerome Cowan. Co-directed by John Ford.
19451

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. The Dark River. Boston: Little, Brown, 1938. Octavo, printed paper wrappers with photographic reproduction of the authors on front cover. A trifle worn. Fine. First edition, an advance copy listing a publication date of June 27 on the front wrapper. With the publisher's postcard requesting "advance Ôhonest' opinions from representative readers" laid in.
7594

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. The Dark River. Boston: Little, Brown, 1938. Octavo, original dusty pink cloth pictorially stamped in green and silver, lettered in silver on spine, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
With two letters regarding the book laid in, one to Bradley E. Stafford on Saturday Evening Post letterhead from Winans Stout, the other from Donald Friede to John Cromwell discussing the idea of him directing the movie of the book.
7595

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard. In Yankee Windjammers. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1940. Octavo, original blue cloth lettered in gilt, top edge stained blue, pictorial endpapers, pictorial dust jacket (spine a little faded, edges rubbed, repaired at top edge and spine heel from inside with cellotape). Top edges a bit faded, else fine. First edition. With a preface by Nordhoff dated Santa Barbara May 15, 1940.
23621

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. No More Gas. Boston: Little, Brown, 1940. Octavo, original blue cloth lettered in silver, pictorial dust jacket (with a very few small nicks). Half of top edge a little dust soiled, else fine. First edition, an advance review copy, with printed slip laid in announcing the publication date of February first.
Initially published in the Saturday Evening Post as Out of Gas. The film changed the title once again, this time to The Tuttles of Tahiti, starring Charles Laughton.
7606

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. The Bounty Trilogy Comprising the Three Volumes, Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea & Pitcairn's Island. Boston: Little, Brown, 1940. Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. Octavo, original blue cloth decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt, map endpapers, pictorial dust jacket (bright). Covers just a tad dulled, name in ink and chop (i.e. Chinese seal) on half title, else fine. First edition thus. Inscribed and signed by the author, James Norman Hall on half title page.
.23381

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. Botany Bay. Boston: Little, Brown, 1941. Dust jacket illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. Octavo, original teal cloth pictorially stamped in silver, lettered in silver, pictorial endpapers, pictorial dust jacket. Fine. First edition, an advance review copy with printed announcement laid in listing a publication date of November 6.
A novel about the eighteenth century English penal colony of Australia. Filmed in 1953 starring Alan Ladd and James Mason.
[Allen p. 225. Dykes #247]. 7590

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. Men Without Country. Boston: Little, Brown, 1942. 12mo, original blue cloth lettered in blue, dust jacket. Fine. First edition.
The plot revolves around an escape by three prisoners from the notorious French penal colony of Devil's Island.
7596

 

NORDHOFF, Charles Bernard and HALL, James Norman. Passage to Marseille. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1942. 12mo, original brown cloth lettered in red, dust jacket (slightly chipped) which has a photograph of Humphrey Bogart on the front panel and a scene from the movie on the back. Fine.
The Photoplay Edition of Men Without Country. The voyage reunited (The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca) the buoyant trio of Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, here cast as three of the men in a boat. The jacket bears a photo of Bogart from the 1944 Warner Brothers production.
7597

NORDHOFF, Charles and HALL, James Norman. The High Barbaree. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1945. Octavo, original light brown cloth lettered in green, pictorial dust jacket (light chipping to spine ends and top corners). Fine. First edition. Signed by Hall.
19450

NORDHOFF, Charles and HALL, James Norman. The High Barbaree. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, (1945). Octavo, original blue cloth lettered in black, pictorial dust jacket (very slight wear). Vertical spine edges a bit rubbed, else fine. The movie edition, with dust jacket panels picturing the film's stars, Van Johnson and June Allyson.
19449

[NORDHOFF & HALL]. . BRIAND, Paul L. In Search of Paradise. The Nordhoff-Hall Story. New York: Duell, Sloane & Pearce, (1966). Octavo, green boards, cream cloth spine lettered in red, pictorial dust jacket (slightly chipped at top of spine). Fine. First edition. With an index and a bibliography.
7600

[NORDHOFF & HALL]. . PALUKA, Frank. Iowa Authors. A Bio-Bibliography of Sixty Native Writers. Iowa City: Friends of the University of Iowa Libraries, 1967. Octavo, original pale green wrappers. Spine and edges of wrappers a little faded, edges slightly dust soiled. First edition. With an index.
James Norman Hall, pp. 95-104, contains the most extensive bibliography of his work, including translations into foreign languages.
24406

[NORDHOFF & HALL]. . JOHNSON, Robert Leland. The American Heritage of James Norman Hall. The Woodshed Poet of Iowa and Co-Author of Mutiny on the Bounty. Philadelphia: Dorrance & Company, (1969). Octavo, original brown cloth lettered in gilt, pictorial dust jacket fine). Fine. First edition. With an index.


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