ESSAYS IN HONOR OF ELIAS CANETTI by Canetti, Elias (Subject); Magris, Claudio; Rushdie, Salman; Sontag, Susan & Other Contributors - 1987

New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1987. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1987. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 322 pages. Landmark collection of essays. Festschrift of the author. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only as a "birthday present" on the occasion of the Nobel Prize Laureate's 80th birthday. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents "Essays In Honor of Elias Canetti". Reflective and admiring homages by fellow writers to Elias Canetti, one of the 20th century's most eccentric and original literary geniuses. Contributors include such marquee names as Walter Allen, John Bayley, Claudio Magris, Salman Rushdie, and Susan Sontag, among others, brilliant, world-class writers in their own right. As an aphorist, that is, as a writer who needed to have the Last Word on a particular subject, Elias Canetti had few rivals. Here his grateful fellow-writers are given the rare opportunity to express their sentiment and thought on his influence and intimidating greatness. "His exacting presence honors literature" (George Steiner). Yes, except for the fact that Canetti had a child-like sense of humor, and despite (or because of) his genius, was irrational in his fear of Women and Death. About death, in particular, he wrote willfully (rather than rationally). He considered its rejection - by the mind, which is "immortal" though alas, trapped in the perishable body - as the only appropriate, comprehensible response to death. The "mind-versus-body" fantasy that Canetti took seriously is surely THE fantasy that every intellectual-rationalist also has: It is unthinkable for every great mind to imagine let alone accept death. Genius will never die even if the body must. Hence the aptness of this "posthumous" collection. An absolute "must-have" title for Elias Canetti collectors. <B><i> This title is a great collection. This is one of few 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 or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. </b></i> Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981. One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ELIAS CANETTI TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0374148899.