THE WIDOWS OF EASTWICK - Rare Pristine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing: Signed by John Updike - SIGNED ON THE TITLE PAGE

Updike, John

ISBN 10: 0307269604 / ISBN 13: 9780307269607

Published by New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008, 2008

About this Item

1st Printing. Signed. 308 pages. Published in 2008. The author's 23rd novel, and final book. The sequel to the author's classic, "The Witches of Eastwick". The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. It should also not be confused with copies that are signed on a bookplate. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. The book is very beautifully produced: Pale blue cloth boards, gold-dominant DJ design, and elegant salmon topstain. Presents John Updike's "The Widows of Eastwick". His brilliant sequel to "The Witches of Eastwick". "John Updike is the great genial sorcerer of American letters. His output alone has been supernatural. This isn't writing. It is magic. At 76, he still wrings more from a sentence than almost anyone else. His sorcery is startlingly fresh, page upon page. Updike's subject is nothing less than 'the whole mass of middling, hidden, troubled America'. No writer of our time has reached into it so deeply or conjured so many of its mysteries so pulsingly to life" (The New York Times). Written in Updike's characteristic lapidary style: Chiseled, polished, impeccable. There is such a thing as a John Updike line or sentence in the sense that there isn't in any other living American writer today. Susan Sontag regarded him as the finest stylist in the English language of our time. An absolute "must-have" title for John Updike collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in blue ink-pen on the title page by John Updike. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a bookplate, as copies available online are. 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. 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. A writer all his adult life, John Updike was probably the most-honored American writer of our time: Winner of numerous awards, among them the Guggenheim Fellowship (1959), Rosenthal Award, National Institute of Arts and Letters (1959), National Book Award for Fiction (1964), O. Henry Prize (1967-68), American Book Award (1982), National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (1982, 1990), Union League Club Abraham Lincoln Award (1982), National Arts Club Medal of Honor (1984), and the National Medal of the Arts (1989), the highest award the U. S. Government bestows on its artists and writers. In 1976, he became a member of American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2003, Updike received the National Medal for Humanities, joining a very small group of great living Americans who have been honored with both the National Medal of the Arts and the National Medal for the Humanities. Updike's greatest novels, "Rabbit Is Rich" and "Rabbit At Rest", won Pulitzer Prizes. One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER JOHN UPDIKE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 0307269604. Seller Inventory # 14286

Bibliographic Details

Title: THE WIDOWS OF EASTWICK - Rare Pristine Copy ...

Publisher: New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008

Publication Date: 2008

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: As New

Dust Jacket Condition: As New

Signed: Signed by Author

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

More than three decades have passed since the events described in John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick. The three divorcées--Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie--have left town, remarried, and become widows. They cope with their grief and solitude as widows do: they travel the world, to such foreign lands as Canada, Egypt, and China, and renew old acquaintance. Why not, Sukie and Jane ask Alexandra, go back to Eastwick for the summer? The old Rhode Island seaside town, where they indulged in wicked mischief under the influence of the diabolical Darryl Van Horne, is still magical for them. Now Darryl is gone, and their lovers of the time have aged or died, but enchantment remains in the familiar streets and scenery of the village, where they enjoyed their lusty primes as free and empowered women. And, among the local citizenry, there are still those who remember them, and wish them ill. How they cope with the lingering traces of their evil deeds, the shocks of a mysterious counterspell, and the advancing inroads of old age, form the burden on Updike's delightful, ominous sequel.

Review:

"Ingenious . . . This isn't writing. It is magic."--New York Times Book Review

"With its fiery energy and wicked humor, The Widows of Eastwick is a truly enjoyable book to read [and] might just be [John Updike's] best novel since 1990's Pulitzer Prize--winning Rabbit at Rest."--Kansas City Star

"Dazzling Updikean prose . . . Here's a bet his work will keep fresh for generations, inciting laughter, wonder and sensuous shivers."--Los Angeles Times

"An amusing romp . . . made unexpectedly moving by the author's profundity and his renowned dexterity with language . . . [Updike is a] master of making us want to guffaw and weep in the same sentence."--Houston Chronicle

"Elegant prose and unfailing wit . . . There is moral courage in these pages. And kindness too."--Washington Times