Tickets for a Prayer Wheel (association copy)
Columbia, MO: U Missouri P, 1974. First edition. Hardcover. Third printing in the year of publication. Dillard's first book, an association copy inscribed on the title page: "For my friends and colleagues Bill and Petch Peden, in all gratitude, Annie Dillard, Middletown, Connecticut, April 12, 1983." William Harwood Peden and Margaret "Petch" Sayers Peden were both professors at the University of Missouri, William a professor of English and a fiction writer, and Petch a professor of Spanish and a prominent translator. William was the founder of the University of Missouri Press, which published this volume. We don't know if he helped Dillard place the book with the press or otherwise supported its publication, though it seems quite possible (there are letters from Dillard in Peden's papers dated 1973), but a nice association in any case. He was also a co-founder of the The Missouri Review. Dillard published this book of fairly spiritual poems rich with natural history just prior to (in the same year as) Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, which quickly eclipsed her poetry and won the Pulitzer, though Tickets for a Prayer Wheel is well regarded. Dillard went on to teach at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, where this book was inscribed. A fine book in thin boards of red cloth, gilt lettering, in a fine jacket. Fine / Fine. Item #1670
ISBN: 9780826201560
Price: $375.00 save 5% $356.25