ALICE MUNRO: SELECTED STORIES by Munro, Alice - 1996

New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Hardcover. Fine/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 545 pages. Retrospective collection of short stories. Advance Reader's Edition/Limited Edition of 200 signed copies. The first appearance of the title in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with the regular trade edition. They have the same ISBN. The Limited Edition is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Alfred A. Knopf: Regular-sized volume format. Cream cloth boards with gilt titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Short stories by Alice Munro. Purple pictorial slipcase with titles on one side. Printed on pristine-white, archival stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Gathers and presents Alice Munro's "Selected Stories". Twenty-eight of the most representative and finest short stories by arguably its greatest writer of our time. "There's nothing quite like a retrospective collection of short stories by a virtuoso of the form: Neither novels nor poetry nor memoirs present readers with such richness, such surprise, such twists of fate, and such quirks of personality. With this gathering of the best of nearly three decades of work, Alice Munro's place in the constellation of short story Masters is affirmed and celebrated. A true literary event, the publication of this generous selection of stories, drawn from Alice Munro's seven collections, gives enormous reading pleasure while it confirms Munro's place in the front rank of today's writers of fiction" (Publisher's blurb). "A stunningly precise writer who is often able to say more in 30 pages than an ordinary novelist is capable of in 300. Munro writes about what are usually called ordinary people, but her intelligence, compassion, and astonishing power of perception enable her to give their lives a remarkable dignity, indeed redemption, since she shows how much of The Extraordinary can fit into that jam-packed emptiness called The Ordinary" (Nobel Prize Citation). An absolute "must-have" title for Alice Munro collectors. This is a copy of the Advance Reader's Edition/Limited Edition. It is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in blue ink-pen on the publisher's tipped-in page by Alice Munro. This title is a great collection. This is one of very few copies of the Advance Reader's Edition/Limited Edition still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Precedes and should NOT be confused with the regular trade edition. Alice Munro's publisher has issued several special editions such as this of her books because throughout her long career, Munro made few public appearances, and is a reluctant signer at best. As such, most of her books are signed on a bookplate, which are much less desirable than copies signed on either the title page or tipped-in page. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ALICE MUNRO TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0679446273.