HEART SONGS AND OTHER STORIES by Proulx, Annie (Proulx, E. Annie) - 1988

New York City, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 151 pages. The author's breakthrough debut collection of short stories and first book. One of the greatest American short story collections of the 20th century. 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. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Annie Proulx's "Heart Songs And Other Stories". Nine of her finest short stories. "Before she wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, 'The Shipping News', E. Annie Proulx was already producing some of the finest short fiction in the country. Here are her collected stories, including two new works never before anthologized. These stories reverberate with rural tradition, the rites of nature, and the rituals of small-town life. The country is blue-collar New England; the characters are native families and the dispossessed working class, whose heritage is challenged by the neo-rural bourgeoisie from the city; and the themes are as elemental as the landscape: Revenge, malice, greed, passion. Told with skill and profundity and crafted by a master storyteller, these are lean, tough tales of an extraordinary place and its people" (Publishers Weekly). It took Annie Proulx a very long time to write and after that, get published. "Heart Songs" appeared when she was 58 years old. Once she found her voice, it resonated with such indelible force among critics and readers in a way that many writers who have been around practically all their lives can only envy, and admire. An absolute "must-have" title for E. Annie Proulx collectors. <b><i> This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black pen on the title page by Annie Proulx. At the time of its publication, the author retained her first initial, "E. Annie Proulx", and she signed this copy that way. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great book. 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: Annie Proulx's signature is TINY. Unlike other copies available online, it is not crudely stamped "Not For Sale" and is not remainder-marked. Copies online also have all kinds of other serious flaws. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. </b></i> Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1993 for "Postcards". Winner of the National Book Award in 1993 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for "The Shipping News". One of the finest writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ANNIE PROULX TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0684187175.