Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First edition. Fine in fine dustwrapper with just a touch of darkening at the extremities. Signed by the author. Scholarly work by the author of *Grendel*.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. 147, [1] pp. 8vo. SIGNED. Signed by the author on the half-title. Purple cloth, unclipped dust jacket. Some discoloration to dust jacket edges. Near fine
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$450.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition. Fine except for a small bump to the gutter of the front board, in a near fine, age-toned dustwrapper. Inscribed to Nicholas Delblanco and his wife: "To Nocholas and Elena with love, John Gardner." 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*. A significant association copy.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.