Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
GARDNER, John. Jason & Medeia. Alfred A. Knopf, 1973.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Description: signed by John Gardner, 354pp, octavo. flat signed by John Gardner on the fep. signed by Gardner on the fep, tight binding, clean throughout, spotting to the top edges and page edges, Good+
Seller: COLLINS BOOKS, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Gardner, John. Jason and Medeia. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1973.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. 354, [2] pp. 1 vols. 8vo. SIGNED. Signed. Tan cloth with gilt stamp to front, dust jacket, signed by the author. Some small tears and light scuffing to dust jacket, fading to spine. Very good
Seller: The Old Mill Bookshop, HACKETTSTOWN, NJ, U.S.A.
Gardner, John. Jason and Medeia. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1973.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Description: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973. First Edition. Fine with slight fading of the pale green top staining, near fine dust jacket with a couple of slight stains, not price clipped, covered in clear plastic. Signed with warm inscription by the author. 8vo., hardbound, (xii), 354, 2 pages, dust jacket. Fine with slight fading of the pale green top staining, near fine dust jacket with a couple of slight stains, not price clipped,
Seller: Four Rivers Books, LLC, Boulder, CO, U.S.A.
GARDNER, John. Jason and Medeia. Knopf, New York, 1973.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 354 pages, 8vo, decorative beige cloth, dust wrapper (dust-soiled; small tear at the top of the spine; green sticker on the front endpaper). New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973. A very good copy in a very good(-) dust wrapper. Signed in full by the author on the title page.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Gardner, John. Jason and Medeia. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1973.
Price: US$225.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: [12], 354, [2] pages. Frontis illustration. Illustrations. Cover has some wear and soiling. Inscribed "To Ed With admiration" by author on fep. Sticker removed from inside front cover. Slightly shaken. No Dust Jacket present. John Champlin Gardner Jr. (July 21, 1933 - September 14, 1982) was an American novelist, essayist, literary critic and university professor. He is best known for his 1971 novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth from the monster's point of view. Gardner was a lifelong teacher of fiction writing. He was a favorite at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. His two books on the craft of writing fictionâ"The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelistâ"are considered classics. Derived from a Kirkus review: John Gardner is a writer of great energy and intellectual inventiveness, saturated in an imagination addicted to myth, mostly the existential sort, man creating his own myths about the self, about order, about love, as the world surrounding him falls to pieces, becomes increasingly chaotic or mindless or threatening. . Jason and Medeia, a retelling of this gory legend of destiny and defiance, of man as a cunning upstart and woman as a vengeful sorceress, of dragons' teeth and fire-breathing bulls, is impressive. The descriptive passages evoke a kind of stage direction, and the spangled adventures on and off the Argo -- scenes of "evil deeds," scenes "seismic in love and wrath" -- project force. The concluding moments of betrayal and carnage, which we remember from Ovid or Euripedes, send a few classic shivers down the reader's spine. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing.
Seller: Ground Zero Books, Ltd., Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
Gardner, John. JASON & MEDEIA. Signed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973, 1973.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Description: 1st Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Author(s). First Edition Signed by Gardner on the second free endpaper. A fine copy in the publisher's nubby beige cloth covered boards, decorative block inset on the front board, faux morocco tan label stamped gilt on the spine, top edge stained green, in a l ovely pictorial dustwrapper designed by Maxfield Parrish, showing just a hint of creasing on the top edge of the front panel. 8vo. 354 pp. An epic poem based on the Greek myth, imbued with Gardner's philosophical and political beliefs.
Seller: TBCL The Book Collector's Library, Montreal, QC, Canada
Gardner, John. Jason and Medeia. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973.
Price: US$275.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Octavo, cream cloth lettered in gilt; pictorial dust jacket, sunned. First edition, second printing. A presentation copy, inscribed to Andre L. Speyer, French horn player for the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops: "To Andre, in case you ever read opera without the music, John Gardner." A close friend for many years, Gardner acknowledged Speyer in his novel "October Light." A compelling presentation copy.
Seller: North Star Rare Books & Manuscripts, Sheffield, MA, U.S.A.
GARDNER, John. Jason and Medeia. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1973.
Price: US$3500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First edition. Fine in a very good plus, spine-faded dustwrapper. Inscribed by Gardner to Nicholas Delbanco with an elaborate drawing: "Should Nicholas need John Gardner the latter will be available and eager to serve at Boskydell Road, Route 1, Carbondale, Illinois 62901. 618 - 549-5493." Additionally Signed and dated by Gardner on the following page and dated the day after he met Delbanco. Gardner and acclaimed novelist and critic Delbanco first forged a friendship when Delbanco hosted Gardner during a reading tour at Bennington College in 1974. Delbanco ended up hiring Gardner for the English Department at the College. They and their families began a close professional and personal relationship in which each of the authors strove to critique the other's works in private and promote them in public, Gardner touting Delbanco as "one of the country's best novelists." Each acknowledged the contribution of the other in developing both their theories of literature and for specific elements of their respective works, whether it be Delbanco using Gardner's title *Stillness* for one of his novels or Gardner using Delbanco's writing to help clarify the husband-wife relationship in one of his own works. Delbanco's home and family became a refuge for both Gardner and his first wife during their messy divorce. Following Gardner's death in a 1982 motorcycle accident, Delbanco became Gardner's literary executor; editing and contributing an introduction to Gardner's posthumously published *Stillness and Shadows*. Delbanco's daughter Francesca, who was an occasional babysitter of Gardner's children, and who has herself published two well-received novels, *Ask Me Anything* and *Midnight in Manhattan* was the Dedicatee of one of Gardner's acclaimed children's books, *The King of Hummingbirds*. In his introduction to *Stillness and Shadows*, Delbanco recounts their first meeting: "The last thing he handed me was a drawing of himself as a gnome, peeping out from the bushes with the block-letter legend, "Should Nicholas require John Gardner, he can be reached at." His number and address in Illinois. I did require him, and he could be reached." This copy bears this same inscription, is dated the day after Delbanco met Gardner and contains a drawing by Gardner, although of three flowers rather than a gnome, raising the possibility that this is the actual note from Gardner being referred to, with some of the details changed in the retelling. A fascinating souvenir of one of an important friendship in contemporary American literature and a significant association copy.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.