First editions of the week: 28 April 2015

--- ”Now is the winter of our discontent."

This week's first editions consists of works from five authors who epitomize American literature in the last 30 years. We have Philip Roth's Operation Shylock, a 1993 PEN/Faulkner award winner that seems to be growing in stature as one of his finer work.


Then there are Cormac McCarthy's latest novels, No Country for Old Men and The Road. No Country for Old Men, the title, originates from WB Yeat's "Sailing to Byzantium", a poem about eternal life and the construct of paradise, that I studied very early on in a Modern Poetry course in college. The Road is a 2007 Pulitzer Winner, and McCarthy mentioned in an interview with Wall Street Journal that he signed 250 copies of the book, but they all belonged to his son, John. In other words, unless you brought a copy from McCarthy junior, chances are the signature is a fake.

Then there are the works of Saul Bellow, an author who I admire very much. Henderson the Rain King, an earlier work, and The Dean's December, a later work. I haven't read either, but hope to do so soon. For the first edition points of Henderson, and the perils of book-buying from sellers who are not very good or honest, see my other post.

Then there is Toni Morrison's latest book - God Help the Child. For some thoughts and an excellent review of the book, see my earlier post. For the first edition points, see my other post.

Then there is Don DeLillo's Libra. And finally, there are three very fine leather books from the now-defunct Franklin Library. These are the special editions that the Franklin Library prepared for the Oxford Library, and represents, in my opinion, the finest Franklin publications. For a bookporn on The Great Gatsby, see my other post.