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Vidal, Gore : The Smithsonian Institution

Random House, New York City, NY, 1998

ISBN 0375501215

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 260 pages. The author's romance novel. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Gore Vidal's "The Smithsonian Institution". A career-twilight novel, a romance with a quintessentially Vidalian anti-Establishment twist. An acerbic look at American politics combined with a classic romance, as the self-consciously "modern-romance novel" DJ design exploits and alludes to. Filled with intrigue as well as vivid yet lyrical descriptions of erotic encounters that will put to shame the most unabashed erotica writers. Gore Vidal died on July 31, 2012 at the age of 86, the last of the great American public intellectual/writers of our time. We live in the Age of Mediocrity, where (nearly) everyone is a critic/blogger/pundit mouthing timid, politically correct opinions. Pundits are retail thinkers, that is, they are not real thinkers. Someday, we will realize what we have irretrievably lost. An absolute "must-have" title for Gore Vidal collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Gore Vidal. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page, as copies available online are. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed 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: Gore Vidal stopped touring in the late-1990's and lived in Italy for several decades, making signed copies of his books, especially the later ones, scarce. The full number line that includes the Number 2 (instead of the Number 1) with the "First Edition" statement were the Random House "true first" indications at the time of the book's publication. Copies available online have serious flaws, are in subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Recipient of the National Book Award's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 for "Distinguished Contribution to American Letters". One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER GORE VIDAL TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0375501215.

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