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Updike, John : The Widows Of Eastwick

Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY, 2008

ISBN 0307269604

First Edition / First Printing. As New in As New Dust Jacket. 308 pages. The author's 23rd novel, and final book. The sequel to the author's classic, "The Witches of Eastwick". The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. It should also not be confused with copies that are signed on a bookplate. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. The book is very beautifully produced: Pale blue cloth boards, gold-dominant DJ design, and elegant salmon topstain. Presents John Updike's "The Widows of Eastwick". His brilliant sequel to "The Witches of Eastwick". "John Updike is the great genial sorcerer of American letters. His output alone has been supernatural. This isn't writing. It is magic. At 76, he still wrings more from a sentence than almost anyone else. His sorcery is startlingly fresh, page upon page. Updike's subject is nothing less than 'the whole mass of middling, hidden, troubled America'. No writer of our time has reached into it so deeply or conjured so many of its mysteries so pulsingly to life" (The New York Times). Written in Updike's characteristic lapidary style: Chiseled, polished, impeccable. There is such a thing as a John Updike line or sentence in the sense that there isn't in any other living American writer. Susan Sontag regarded him as the finest stylist in the English language of our time. John Updike died of lung cancer on January 27, 2009 at the age of 76. He leaves behind a very large body of work, but will still be missed. An absolute "must-have" title for John Updike collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in blue pen on the title page by John Updike. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a bookplate, as most copies available online are. The color blue beautifully matches the blue boards. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. A writer all his adult life, John Updike was probably the most-honored American writer of our time: Winner of numerous awards, among them the Guggenheim Fellowship (1959), Rosenthal Award, National Institute of Arts and Letters (1959), National Book Award for Fiction (1964), O. Henry Prize (1967-68), American Book Award (1982), National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (1982, 1990), Union League Club Abraham Lincoln Award (1982), National Arts Club Medal of Honor (1984), and the National Medal of the Arts (1989), the highest award the U. S. Government bestows on its artists and writers. In 1976, he became a member of American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2003, Updike received the National Medal for Humanities, joining a very small group of great living Americans who have been honored with both the National Medal of the Arts and the National Medal for the Humanities. Updike's greatest novels, "Rabbit is Rich" and "Rabbit at Rest", won Pulitzer Prizes. One of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER JOHN UPDIKE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0307269604.

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