The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (Annie Dillard's copy)
NY: Viking Press, 1974. First edition. Hardcover. Third printing in the year of publication. An association copy, with a non-authorial inscription on the front free endpaper: "To Annie Dillard, from a Pilgrim at Tinker Creek fan. In appreciation on [sic] new eyes and re-remindings of a world that fades too often. Chris Rubel, 2/17/75." A neat copy because Dillard actually mentions this book in her essay "Making Contact" (The Yale Review, Summer 1988), which is about her fan mail and correspondence with readers: "A doctor of religion on the West Coast, who lives on his ketch, sent me my third copy of Lives of a Cell. (Lewis Thomas told me that whenever he opened a package that year, he was likely to find yet another copy of my book.) Nothing surprises me." A copy of this issue of The Yale Review is included (not yet pictured). The Lives of a Cell was published the same year as Pilgrim, and indeed Lewis Thomas and Dillard share a dedication to lyrical observation of the small and its mysteries. Rubel's inscription alludes to her chapter on "Seeing" in Pilgrim. He held a doctorate in pastoral psychology and was a practicing therapist. A copy of his obit is included. Green paper boards with a baby blue cloth spine, blue topstain. Very good with some dust soiling/sunning to board edges, rubbing to lower edges, and pushing to spine ends; a small smudge to outer text block face. In a very good jacket a little soiling to spine, fraying to spine ends, and scattered streaks and spots. Very good / Very good. Item #2198
ISBN: 0670434426
More about the book:
"A physician and cancer researcher shares his personal observations on the uniformity, diversity, interdependence, and strange powers of the earth's life forms."
"Elegant, suggestive, and clarifying, Lewis Thomas's profoundly humane vision explores the world around us and examines the complex interdependence of all things. Extending beyond the usual limitations of biological science and into a vast and wondrous world of hidden relationships, this provocative book explores in personal, poetic essays to topics such as computers, germs, language, music, death, insects, and medicine. Lewis Thomas writes, 'Once you have become permanently startled, as I am, by the realization that we are a social species, you tend to keep an eye out for the pieces of evidence that this is, by and large, good for us.'".
Price: $450.00 save 5% $427.50