STRANGER SHORES: LITERARY ESSAYS 1986-1999

New York City, NY: Viking, 2001. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Viking, 2001. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 295 pages. Landmark collection of literary essays. The first appearance of the title in the United States. 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 scarce. Presents J. M. Coetzee's "Stranger Shores". His literary essays. "An acclaimed novelist, J. M. Coetzee is also a rigorous essayist, as evident in his collection on censorship, 'Giving Offense' (1996) , and in his serious literary criticism. This gathering of 26 essays displays the range and interpretative richness of his profound involvement in other writers' work, beginning with an intriguing inquiry into how Daniel Defoe was eclipsed by his own creation, the now mythic Robinson Crusoe, and Coetzee's vision for a screen adaptation of Samuel Richardson's 'Clarissa'. Writing from a consistently elevated political perspective as well as academically calibrated aesthetics, Coetzee also digs into Joseph Frank's monumental five-volume biography of Dostoevsky, discusses the work of Czech writer Josef Skvorecky, and roughs up A. S. Byatt. Caribbean novelist Caryl Phillips comes in for searing criticism even as Coetzee praises him for 'remembering what the West would like to forget'. Aharon Appelfeld, Naguib Mahfouz, and a constellation of South African writers, including Nadine Gordimer and Doris Lessing, Daphne Rooke and Breyten Breytenbach, are all treated with equal measures of skepticism and respect to illuminating ends" (Publishers Weekly) . An absolute "must-have" title for J. M. Coetzee collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by J. M. Coetzee. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) 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 Lannan Award in 1998, the Jerusalem Prize in 1999, the Booker Prize in 1983 for "The Life & Times of Michael K" and in 1999 for "Disgrace", the first writer to win the most prestigious British literary award twice. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER J. M. COETZEE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0670899828.