THE BURNING LIBRARY: ESSAYS

New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 386 pages. Retrospective collection of essays. One of Edmund White's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the British Edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Edmund White's "The Burning Library: Essays". His first and, in many ways, still his best retrospective. Six of the pieces appear in this book for the very first time. "Along with his ground-breaking essays that redefine politics, language, identity, and friendship in the light of gay experience and desire, this magisterial collection of 25 years of White's nonfiction writings includes dazzling, subversive appreciations of cultural icons as diverse as Truman Capote and Cormac McCarthy, Robert Mapplethorpe and the singer formerly known as Prince" (Publisher's blurb). "Reviews the work of contemporary writers, American and European, gay and non-gay, such as James Merrill, Christina Stead, Darryl Pinckney, and Marguerite Yourcenar. Together with White's discussions of his own fiction, provides valuable insights into the reading and writing of literature" (Judy Mimken). "One of the three or four most virtuosic living writers of sentences in the English language" (Dave Eggers). An absolute "must-have" title for Edmund White collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Edmund White. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Laid-in is a pristine copy of the Souvenir Material of the event during which his signature was obtained. This title is a late-modern 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. 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. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1994 for "Genet: A Biography". Anointed by Vladimir Nabokov as his American successor. One of the finest writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER EDMUND WHITE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0679434755.