"Mother Nature": four novels from these authors, each a gift to his mother
1st Edition. Hardcover. A collection of four novels from some of our most important 20th century environmental writers. Each book was a gift to the authors mother (three of them inscribed). Each writer made his mark in both fiction and nonfiction, in particular in nature writing and bioregionalism. A ready-made exhibit.
Wendell Berry remains a leading figure in the environmental and agrarian movements, with his deep attachment to his Kentucky farm. Edward Hoagland has been described by John Updike as the best essayist of my generation, and has written widely on natural history. Paul Horgan won the Pulitzer Prize twice in history, and in 1989 David McCullough argued persuasively in the New York Times that With the exception of Wallace Stegner, no living American has so distinguished himself in both fiction and history. Peter Matthiessen is one of the few American writers that could rival Hogan and Stegner as distinguished in both fiction and history. He won the National Book Award in both fiction and nonfiction, and wrote histories and natural histories. Needless to say, their moms probably deserve some credit for their successes. Here we have from each writer a gesture of love and gratitude that is always a de facto dedication copy.
But this cluster is also dubbed Mother Nature because she has left her mark on a couple of these books. Two of these books are in fair-to-good condition only, but arguably this adds to their gravity. These were cherished family copies that nonetheless began to lose the battle against time and the elements. Peter Matthiessen's Partisans has lost its dust jacket, is heavily stained on the FFEP, and has been lightly, lovingly chewed by insects. It remains readable but it is perhaps best served as an object of reverence with a reading copy near at hand. Paul Horgan's novel is also without its dust jacket, perhaps because it was caught in flood and mudslide that devastated the Horgan family home in Albuquerque. This fact is not without resonance considering Horgan's best-known, Pulitzer-and Bancroft-winning, two volume book, the Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History, which the New York Times called an unfoldment of life. His most popular novel also was Whitewater, about the flooding of a Texas town. Wendell Berry's novel is in very-good-plus shape, and fittingly, a flood is also part of its narrative, only in a positive way: After the book was returned to Berry following his mother's death, Berry later donated it to the Pendleton County Public Library to help it rebuild after its collections were lost to a devastating flood. Hoagland's book is in very good shape, with only a little waviness to the upper half of the first three pages. Its specially bound in blue leather with marbled pastedowns, perhaps a one-of-a-kind copy, a gift from the publisher. As far as fitting our watery theme, the best that can be said is that its central character is downcast, flooded with emotion, wandering a seedy hotel at the edge of Harlem. At least three of these books returned to these authors after their parents died, itself another reflection of Mother Nature's work. Horgan's, the fourth, may have been cast out after that mudslide. Together this collection is a moving symbol of the river of time and the recycling of materials that was or is central to these men's environmental writing and ecological ethos. These books well embody Mother Nature. Good. Item #ABE-1593561229736
Price: $6,000.00 save 5% $5,700.00