Loot of the Week 22 August 2016

So here's this week's rather slim loot in number, albeit with a major capture!

At the center is a signed copy of Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men" published by the Franklin Library as part of its Signed 60 series. "All the King's Men" received unanimous recommendation from the Pulitzer jury and it went on to win the last of "Novel" prize in 1947. The following year, Pulitzer prize in Novel was replaced by one in Fiction. The first edition copy of this title is now quite hard to find, and usually comes with severely tattered dust jacket, especially at spine tips.

On the right is a new book, Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad", that is receiving rave reviews. I got it from Strand Bookstore early, thinking that it'll be a first printing. Nevertheless, a third printing one arrived, so I guess I got to go out and buy a first printing again. Whitehead's early work, "John Henry Days" was shortlisted for the 2002 Pultizer, along with Jonathan Franzen's "The Correction", and Richard Russo's "Empire Falls", that year's winner.

Finally, there's the coup! Behold the first hard cover edition of David Foster Wallace's first book, "The Broom of the System". This book was one of two undergraduate theses Wallace submitted at Amherst, where he graduated with two majors - English and Philosoophy - both summa cum laude. This hardcover edition is very rare, and the officially accepted number of published copies is established to be about 1,500. Published in 1987 by Viking Press, it remains one of the two very sought after Wallace titles, the other being his magnum opus, "Infinite Jest". This copy is especially rare for its NF dust jacket that suffers only some sunned fading to the spine.