Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Kosinski, Jerzy. Notes of the Author on "The Painted Bird". Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1965.
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Limited edition, slightly soiled presentation copy to fellow writer Daniel Stern and wife Gloria, signed by author/slight tear; 29 pages; Along lower spine
Seller: Ann Becker, Houston, TX, U.S.A.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Description: Soft cover french wraps, 1st edition with unquantified limited distribution, originally intended as an appendix for the German-language edition. Very light toning to the glossy white wraps else about fine. INSCRIBED to writer Geoffrey Wolff on the front end paper, with Wolff's signature atop the page and his underlining and marginalia throughout the pamphlet.
Seller: Tom Davidson, Bookseller, Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A.
KOSINSKI, Jerzy. The Painted Bird: Notes of the Author. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1965.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition. 12mo. Stapled self-wrappers. Some modest age-toning on the wrappers, near fine. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication. These notes were originally issued for the German addition of *The Painted Bird*.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: Inscribed by author on title page. NEAR-FINE IN CARD COVERS. VERY MINOR WEAR.
Seller: MARK POST, BOOKSELLER, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
Kosinski, Jerzy. THE PAINTED BIRD. NOTES OF THE AUTHOR. Signed. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1965.
Price: US$535.00 + shipping
Description: 1st Edition. Soft Cover. Signed by Author. First Edition Inscribed by Jerzy Kosinski on the front free endpaper to Canadian novelist, Elizabeth Smart, best known for her celebrated work, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, fictionalizing her many - year relationship with the poet George Barker. A near fine copy in white glossy, stiff card wrappers, as issued, printed in black and showing some light sunning at the edges. 8vo. 29 pp.
Seller: TBCL The Book Collector's Library, Montreal, QC, Canada
Kosinski, Jerzy (1933-1991). The Painted Bird. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
Price: US$819.40 + shipping
Description: Fine cloth copy in a near fine, very slightly edge-nicked and dust-dulled dw, now mylar-sleeved. Remains particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and sharp-cornered. ; 272 pages; Signed, inscribed and dated by the author. Subjects: World War, 1939-1945--Europe, Eastern--Fiction. Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945--Fiction. Abandoned children--Fiction. [Positively revised from the first edition becoming, as a consequence the author's definintive edition]. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Kosinski, Jerzy (1933-1991). The Painted Bird. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1965.
Price: US$878.63 + shipping
Description: Fine cloth copy in a near fine, very slightly edge-nicked and dust-dulled dw, now mylar-sleeved. Remains particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and sharp-cornered. ; 272 pages; Signed, inscribed and dated by the author. Subjects: World War, 1939-1945--Europe, Eastern--Fiction. Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945--Fiction. Abandoned children--Fiction. [Positively revised from the first edition becoming, as a consequence the author's definintive edition]. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books Ltd., Galway, Ireland
Jerzy Kosinski. The Painted Bird. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1965.
Price: US$1250.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: A crisp, very sharp copy of the 1965 stated 1st printing. WARMLY INSCRIBED BY JERZY KOSINSKI on the title page. Clean and Near Fine in a bright, price-intact ($4.95), easily Near Fine to Fine dustjacket, with just the slightest hint of light rubbing along the spine. Octavo, iconic jacket design by noted children's illustrators and authors Leo and Diane Dillon. A lovely copy.
Seller: APPLEDORE BOOKS, ABAA, WACCABUC, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1375.00 + shipping
Description: First Printing, first state, with extraneous line at the top of p.270 struck-through by Kosinski himself, using the same pen he used to write the inscription. Octavo (21cm); brown cloth, with titles stamped in black on spine and author's name in blind on front panel; brown topstain; dustjacket; [xii],272,[4]pp. Lengthily inscribed by the author on the title page, four days prior to publication, beginning with a long quote by Proust: "Every reader reads himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself." (Marcel Proust) / For Allan Elsner / with friendship and admiration / Jerzy / New York, October 10, 1965 / Jerzy Kosinski." Base of spine gently nudged, else a fresh, Fine copy. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $4.95), panels showing subtle toning, light shelfwear, some shallow chipping to crown, a few small tears, with sunning and a few faint splash marks to spine panel; Very Good. The National Book Award-winning author's first novel under this name, a moving story of a boy separated from his parents during World War II, and the harrowing Eastern European landscape he is forced to navigate before ultimately being reunited with them. Basis for Václav Marhoul's 2019 black & white war drama of the same name. The recipient of this inscription, Allan Elsner (1916-2001), was the long-time proprietor of the First Avenue Bookshop in New York City.
Seller: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.
Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1965.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, first printing, first issue with the top line of page 270 also appearing at the top of page 271, though the line on page 270 crossed out in pencil. A presentation copy signed in the year of publication by Jerzy Kosinski, "For Mr. Harold D. Klipstein - with appreciation." Bound in publisher's original brown cloth with author's name in blind on the upper board and titles stamped in black on the spine. Near Fine with front and rear inner hinges repaired. In a Near Fine unclipped dust jacket with light foxing and light toning. A nice copy of the author's first novel.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
KOSINSKI, JERZY. The Painted Bird. Boston Houghton Mifflin 1965, 1965.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition. Inscribed and signed by the author, Jerzy Kosinski, to fellow writer, Wayne Warga and his wife. Inscribed: ÒFor Wayne and Carol, affectionately, with much thought. Jerzy. March 1982.Ó above which he has drawn a bird. Additionally signed ÒJerzy Kosinski.Ó Wayne Warga was a friend of Kosinski and interviewed him for The Los Angeles Times. Near fine copy with just a faint hint of fading to the cloth at the edges in a very good plus lightly dust soiled dust jacket with a few small tears. From the library of journalist and novelist Wayne Warga. The youngest editor at Life Magazine at age 25, Warga reported on John F. KennedyÕs race for the Presidency, and went on to cover the Civil Rights movement for the magazine. For many years, Warga was one of the leading writers at the Los Angeles Times where he did in depth articles and features on writers and people in the arts. Later, Warga became a mystery novelist, creating three well-received bibliomysteries: Hardcover, Fatal Impressions, and Singapore Transfer, featuring Los Angeles rare book dealer, Jeffrey Dean.
Seller: James Pepper Rare Books, Inc., ABAA, Santa Barbara, CA, U.S.A.