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Darwin, Charles & Lincoln, Abraham (Subjects) & Gopnik, Adam (Author) : Angels And Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, And Modern Life

Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY, 2009

ISBN 0307270785

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 211 pages. The author's book-length account on subjects. One of the finest literary and intellectual achievements of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Adam Gopnik's "Angels And Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, And Modern Life". The best book - and Adam Gopnik's best book - published to celebrate the Bi-Centennial of both Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. Linked essays on two great, still-controversial, and still-relevant figures, who were born on the same day, February 12, 1809. "In the year of Darwin's and Lincoln's Bi-Centennial, Gopnik finds parallels of cultural impact between the men, born on the same day in 1809, seeing them as twin exemplars of modernity. Gopnik notes that it is not what they have in common with each other that matters. It is what they have in common with us. And that commonality lies in the modern way of speaking (plain English) and thinking (scientific and liberal). Gopnik underscores the importance of eloquence in spreading new ideas, and his notion that Lincoln and Darwin exemplify the modern predicament, that human beings must live in the space between what we know and what we feel, is resonant" (Publishers Weekly). The criticism leveled against Gopnik's account is that the connection between Lincoln and Darwin is tenuous at best, and that his effort to make one is a stretch. We need to respond to the stupidity of such criticism as plainly as possible: There is no obvious connection whatsoever between Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. Gopnik's achievement is precisely to find and make the connection where none previously existed, enabling us to see two men who never met in a whole new light, and making it impossible to dismiss their connection from hereon. Forget the solemn and adoring 500-page books on Darwin and Lincoln that have been published in 2009, tedious "scholarship" that goes over the same ground previous books have already trod. Adam Gopnik's book is all you need to see these two towering modern figures again, with fresh eyes, with intelligence, and with insight, that rare ability to make connections where none appear to exist. An absolute "must-have" title for Adam Gopnik, Charles Darwin, and Abraham Lincoln collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed and dated (in the year of publication) in black ink-pen on the title page by Adam Gopnik. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed and publication-year dated copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. One of the most brilliant American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ADAM GOPNIK TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0307270785.

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