Frank Waters, Fever Pitch (1930). The Native American author's first book.
Waters, Frank (1902-1995). Fever Pitch. New York: Horace Liveright, 1930. First edition. 19.5 cm.; 233pp. Very good in silver-stamped orange and blue cloth, in a very good example of the rare dust-jacket.
First edition of the author's first book. A native of Colorado, Waters identified strongly wih his Native American ancestry (his father was part Cheyenne), and wrote extensively on Indian topics. He was most widely revered for The Man Who Killed the Deer (1942) and The Book of the Hopi (1963), which became a key text for members of the American counterculture.
In his introduction to the 1984 reprint of the novel, published under the author's preferred original title (The Lizard Woman), Waters recalled the circumstances of writing:
The novel was begun in 1926, when I was twenty-four years old and working as a telephone engineer in Imperial Valley, on the California-Baja California border. During my stay there I made a horseback trip down into the little-known desert interior of Lower California. After having lived all of my early years in the high Rockies of California, I was unprepared for the vast sweep of sunstruck desert with its flat wastes, clumps of cacti, and barren parched-rock ranges. Its emotional impact was so profound, I was impelled to give voice to it with pencil and paper.
Comparing the novel’s narrative arc – “a nightmare journey into desolation and its paradoxical illumination … result[ing] in dislocation from history and society but also in a new sense of relationship to the universe ” – to works by Melville, Frost, Poe, and Conrad, critic Alexander Blackburn notes that the book foreshadows the author’s major themes of "unity, duality, and emergence."
Issued by Horace Liveright, one of the most interesting publishers of the 1930s, the book is seldom found in jacket.
References
- Blackburn, Alexander. "Frank Waters’s The Lizard Woman and the Emergence of the Dawn Man." Western American Literature, vol. 24 no. 2, 1989, p. 121-136.
- Tanner, Terence A. Frank Waters: A Bibliography. Glenwood, IL: Meyerbooks, 1983
- Waters, Frank. "Introduction" in The Lizard Woman. Austin: Thorp Springs Press, 1984.
Product tabs
SOLD
Earn 0Reward points
Recommend this product

Frank Waters, Fever Pitch (1930). The Native American author's first book.
Related products
Thomas Bewick. Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell (1795), with an unrecorded suite of plates.
[Bewick, John and Thomas]. Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell. London: W[illiam] Bulmer, 1795. First edition thus. 4to. xx+76 pp. Some light foxing, else ...
view details
$1,250
View details
$2,500
Albert Camus, La Chute (1956). First edition. Signed.
Camus, Albert (1913-1960). La Chute. Paris: Gallimard, 1956. 170 p. First edition. One of 1050 numbered copies printed on "vélin labeur" and bound in ...
view details
$2,500
View details
$85
Anthony BURGESS, The Right to an Answer (1960). First edition.
Burgess, Anthony (1917-1993). The Right to an Answer. London: Heinemann, 1960. First edition. Very good or better in dustwrapper.An early work by the ...
view details
$85
View details
$750
I. J. SINGER. The Sinner / Yoshe Kalb (1933). First edition
Singer, I. J. (Israel Joshua). The Sinner (Yoshe Kalb). New York: Liveright, 1933. First edition. Very good in a well-preserved example of the rare du...
view details
$750
View details
$1,750
John HAWKES. Fiasco Hall (1943). Juvenilia, from His Juvenile Library
Hawkes, John (1925-1998). Fiasco Hall, by J. C. B. Hawkes, Jr. Cambridge, MA: Privately Printed, 1943. First edition. [5] + 14p.; 21 cm. Bound (with c...
view details
$1,750
View details
$1,250
H. G. WELLS. The World Set Free. First edition in the rare dustwrapper (1914)
Wells, H. G. The World Set Free: A Story of Mankind. New York: Dutton, 1914. First edition. Fine in a very good dustwrapper.A science fiction title pu...
view details
$1,250
View details
$1,000
Harlan ELLISON, Sex Gang (1959). First edition
Ellison, Harlan (1934-2018) writing as Paul Merchant. Sex Gang. San Diego: Nightstand Books No. 1503, 1959. First edition. Light rubbing to covers, ot...
view details
$1,000
View details
$2,750
E. E. "Doc" Smith, Vortex Blaster, inscribed
Smith, Edward E. "Doc" (1890–1965). The Vortex Blaster. Reading: Fantasy Press, 1960. Fine in a very good dustwrapper with a nick to the top gutter.In...
view details
$2,750
View details
$500
Lord DUNSANY. The Gods of Pegana (1916). First American edition
Dunsany, Lord. Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett (1878-1957). The Gods of Pegana. Boston: John Luce, 1916. First American edition. A near fine copy.Bo...
view details
$500
View details
$250
Donald A. Wollheim. The Secret of the Ninth Planet (1959). A scarce Winston juvenile.
Wollheim, Donald A. The Secret of the Ninth Planet. Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1959. First edition. Fine in a price-clipped first state dustwrappe...
view details
$250
View details
$1,750
Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe, Illustrated Handkerchief Set (ca. 1820s)
[DEFOE, Daniel]. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1st and 2nd series. Two linen handkerchiefs printed in sepia. [England?], ca. 1820s-1830s...
view details
$1,750
View details
$18,500
Eugene Zamiatin. We. First edition, in the rare dustwrapper
Zamiatin, Eugene [Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin] (1884-1937). We. New York: Dutton, 1924. First edition. xiv, 286 p.; 20 cm. A very good copy in black cl...
view details
$18,500
View details
$12,000
William FAULKNER, Knight's Gambit (1949). Uncorrected Proof. One of three known copies.
FAULKNER, William (1897-1962). Knight’s Gambit. New York: Random House, 1949. Uncorrected proof of the first edition, “for advance readers.” [148] unn...
view details
$12,000
View details
$750
A Coded film script by Lynn Riggs
Riggs, Lynn (1899-1954) and W. P. Lipscomb (1887-1958). The Garden of Allah: Dialogue Continuity. American Version. [Culver City:] Selznick Internatio...
view details
$750
View details
$1,750
Vladimir NABOKOV. Lolita (1955). First hardcover edition
Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. Jerusalem: Printed in Israel for The Olympia Press by Steimatzky's Agency, 1955. 223 p. First hardcover edition. Fine in a ...
view details
$1,750
View details
$475
William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch: signed and finely bound
Burroughs, William S. (1914-1997) Naked Lunch. New York: Grove Press, 1980. Original wrappers rubbed; some evidence of an old water stain causing disc...
view details
$475
View details
$3,250
W. Heath Robinson. Bill the Minder. His magnum opus. Signed, limited edition, in vellum
Robinson, W. Heath (1872-1944). Bill the Minder. London: Constable & Co. Ltd, 1912. First edition. Large 4to. Bound in publisher's full white vell...
view details
$3,250
View details
$2,750
Gustav Hasford. The Short-Timers (1979): the source for Full Metal Jacket
Hasford, Gustav (1947-1993), The Short-Timers. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. 154 pages; 22 cm. First edition. A fine copy in a fine dustwrapper.In...
view details
$2,750
View details
$6,000
Herman MELVILLE. The Confidence Man. First edition, Association Copy
MELVILLE, Herman (1819-1891). The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade. New York: Dix, Edwards & Co, 1857. First edition. vi, 394 p.; 19 cm. BAL 13670. ...
view details
$6,000
View details