BY Saul Bellow
Book Information: 1/1/0/US/VG/1947/? • ? • ?
BY Saul Bellow
Book Information: 1/1/0/US/VG/1947/? • ? • ?
Book Information: 1/1/0/US/VP/1987/1,300? • ? • ?
This month, we have 6 interesting first editions, mostly Pulitzer related.
The catch is Saul Bellow's first edition of "The Victim". This was his second novel in 1947, after his debut, "Dangling Man" in 1944, and the last one Bellow published under Vanguard Press before moving on to Viking Press where his enjoyed literary success with "The Adventures of Augie March", "Herzog", and "Humboldt's Gift", amongst others. Bellow called "The Victim" and "Dangling Man" his PhD and MA respectively later in life, written to Flaubertian standards in his early literary apprenticeship. It is now difficult to secure these two titles' first edition in good dust jackets as most are plagued with severe chips and very sunned spine. I'm still searching for a great copy of "Dangling Man" at reasonable price to complete my Bellow collection.
Below Bellow is E. Annie Proulx's "The Shipping News". I've already got a first edition copy but that one has a minor flaw on its front endpaper, so I'd been on a lookout for a replacement copy. "The Shipping News" was critically acclaimed, winning the Pulitzer in 1994 and the NBA in 1993, and established Proulx as a leading American female writer. Incidentally, I'm as, or more, charmed by Proulx's short stories.
Then there are two Paul Horgans. Horgan was twice Pulitzer winners in History, and made a single appearance for the Fiction prize as unofficial finalist in 1978 with "The Thin Mountain Air". The winner that year was James Alan MacPherson's "Elbow Room". "Memories of the Future" was an earlier Horgan first edition that was sold in a bundle, and it has a very nice dust jacket design.
We also have Ursula Le Guin's short stories collection, "Unlocking the Air" - described by the Jury as "a series of carefully crafted meditations" - that was a 1997 Pulitzer finalist alongside Joanna Scott's "The Manikin", and the winner, Martin Millhauser's "Martin Dressler".
And finally, we have John O'Hara, a three times unofficial Pulitzer finalist who never won it, some say because of his overbearing personality. O'Hara finalist debut was "Ten North Frederick" but he lost out to Mackinlay Kantor's "Andersonville" for the 1956 prize. He was closest in 1959 with "From the Terrace", which was recommended as the strong first choice by the Jury, but the prize went to Robert Lewis Taylor's "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters", the Jury's second choice and the Board's pick. O'Hara's final appearance was in 1969 with "And Other Stories", but only as the Jury's third choice, and the prize went to N. Scott Momaday's "House Made of Dawn".
Read More
I took the opportunity to pick up some more Pulitzer finalists over the holiday season at very reasonable prices.
The oldest finalist is Peter Feibleman's "Strangers and Graves" published in 1966. Officially, Pulitzer Board only started publishing the 2 finalists from 1980, so any finalist prior to that was determined based on my judgement from reading the Jury reports published in the "Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction". For that year, "[a]mong other novels and short stories, there were perhaps a dozen or so seriously considered by the Judges...", including Feibleman's, John Barth's "Giles Goatboy", and Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49". Bernard Malamud's "The Fixer" took the prize.
For the 1999 Pulitzer, Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible" and Russell Banks' "Cloudsplitter" were both finalists to Michael Cunningham's "The Hours". This would be Kingsolver's sole Pulitzer appearance and banks' second and last: he was also finalist for the 1986's prize for "Continental Drift" with Anne Taylor's "The Accidental Tourist", and the winner was William Kennedy's "Ironweed".
Then there is Ha Jin's "War Trash", a 2005 finalist with fellow finalist, Ward Just's "An Unfinished Season" and winner, Marilynne Robinson's "Gilead". This was also Ha Jin's second and final Pulitzer appearance, having been also a finalist in 2000 with "Waiting", a National Book Award winner.
Finally, there is Richard Ford's "Let Me be Frank with You" that graced the 2015 Pulitzer with fellow finalists, Laila Lalami's "the Moor's Account" and Joyce Carol Oates' "Lovely, Dark, Deep", and winner, Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See". Incidentally, this was also Ford's second and final Pulitzer appearance, having won the prize in 1996 with "Independence Day"
Read More
My trusted laptop took a victory lap and then declared eternal solace. A scramble to extract all the pictures ensued and, whilst protracted and painful, they were recovered via dos-prompt. Imagine the laptop as Uranus and the pictures as the descendants he hid, and we have a partial modern re-make of Hesiod's Theogony.
Here we have five prize winners, all (purportedly) signed. The top row of three I already have in unsigned first editions, but who could resist getting duplicates of reasonably priced signed ones. The bottom two are Bookers, and Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss", published in 2006, also won the National Book Critics Circle Award, beating out, amongst others, Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" that won the Pulitzer. The copy here is the UK first printing by Hamish Hamilton, and the US first printing by Atlantic Monthly Press has a light dust jacket.
Hilary Mantel's "Bring Up the Bodies" took 2012's Booker, and was the second of her famed Thomas Cromwell trilogy that started from "Wolf Hall", also a Booker, and ended with "The Mirror and the Light".
Read MoreSTRANGER! Welcome to Bookporn Club.
If books excite you, then you are in good company. Presented here is my book collection, mainly of first edition American literature, and, sometimes, of beautiful books from Folio Society, old Franklin Library, and Taschen, amongst others. For fellow first edition collectors, the extensive photos on this website should be useful reference of the first edition points.
The complete first edition collections of Cormac McCarthy's novels and Alice Munro's original short stories publications is now available.
I am contactable at admin@bookporn.club.