THE PATCH by McPhee, John - 2018

New York City, NY: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2018. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/As New Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2018. Hardcover. As New/As New. First Edition/First Printing. 256 pages. Retrospective collection of essays. One of John McPhee's finest achievements. 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. Presents John McPhee's "The Patch". His companion volume to "Draft No. 4: On The Writing Process" (2017). These are his "summing-up" essays, presented in two unequal parts that work as a whole, giving elegant shape to the beguiling patchwork of McPhee's life-work as the finest American descriptive essayist of his (and our) time. "Part 1, 'The Sporting Scene', consists of pieces on fishing, football, golf, and lacrosse. Part 2, 'An Album Quilt', is a montage of fragments of varying lengths from pieces done across the years that have never appeared in book form: Occasional pieces, memorial pieces, reflections, reminiscences, and short items from various magazines. The author's purpose was not merely to preserve things, but to choose passages that might entertain contemporary readers" (Publisher's blurb). His earliest, "apprenticeship" pieces - which are real gems - lead up, more or less, to his several-decades-long membership in The New Yorker Magazine's elite club of Master Writers. An absolute "must-have" title for John McPhee collectors. <b><i> This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black pen on the half-title page by John McPhee. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. McPhee made another rare appearance, in New York City, to launch the book. Laid-in is a pristine copy of the Souvenir Material of the event during which his signature was obtained. 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: 87 years old in 2018, John McPhee does NOT do public signings, making one more rare exception for this book. A rare signed copy thus. </b></i> Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for "Annals of The Former World". Winner of the Wallace Stegner Award in 2011 for his "sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, and lore". One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER JOHN MCPHEE TITLE IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0374229481.