HOLLYWOOD: A NOVEL OF AMERICA IN THE 1920S - Rare Pristine/Shrinkwrapped Copy of The Limited Slipcased Edition: Numbered And Signed by Gore Vidal

Vidal, Gore

ISBN 10: 0394576594 / ISBN 13: 9780394576596

Published by New York City, NY: Random House, 1990, 1990

About this Item

1st Printing. Signed. 436 pages. Published in 1990. The sixth volume in the author's cycle on American history. Limited Slipcased Edition of 200 numbered and signed copies. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. The Limited Edition is now scarce. Like three other titles in the cycle ("Lincoln", "1876", "Empire"), Random House issued a Limited Edition for the novel. All of them are the most beautiful (and therefore most collectible) editions. An austerely elegant production by Random House: Regular-sized volume format. Black cloth boards with gilt titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Text by Gore Vidal. Red hard board slipcase. In publisher's original shrinkwrap. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Gore Vidal's "Hollywood: A Novel of America In The 1920's". Part of a grand vision of American history "from above", a multi-volume project that took the better part of forty years. The preceding novels, in historical order, are: "Burr", "Lincoln", "1876", "Empire", and "Washington, DC". The final volume is "The Golden Age", ironically and lovingly titled at the same time because, for Vidal, the first decade after the Second World War represents America at its peak: The most advanced, most prosperous, and most important (not just most powerful) nation in the world. Vidal's unblinking and penetrating vision throughout the entire cycle is the transformation of his beloved country from a struggling, proud, and independent Republic to a world power and out-of-control Empire. "Vidal's historical imagination is so powerful as to compel awe" (Harold Bloom). Most of his admirers deem the essays to be Vidal's greatest achievement because they are indeed so arresting, seductive, and inimitable. As always, Bloom's wisdom puts matters in perspective: The historical novels (and their contrapuntal inversion, Vidal's hyper-novel "inventions") will take their rightful place in his oeuvre. 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 is a copy of the Limited Slipcased Edition of 200 numbered and signed copies, indicated/numbered as such on the Front Limitation Page. It is very prominently and beautifully signed in blue ink-pen by Gore Vidal. This title is a great book. This is one of few copies of the Limited Slipcased Edition still available online, is still in the publisher's original shrinkwrap, and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Like three other titles in the cycle ("Lincoln", "1876", "Empire"), Random House issued a Limited Edition for "Hollywood". Among the bewildering number of choices available online, all of them are surely the most desirable editions. 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 0394576594. Seller Inventory # 12363

Bibliographic Details

Title: HOLLYWOOD: A NOVEL OF AMERICA IN THE 1920S -...

Publisher: New York City, NY: Random House, 1990

Publication Date: 1990

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: As New

Dust Jacket Condition: None, As Issued

Signed: Signed by Author

Edition: 1st Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

"Wicked and provocative...Vidal's purview of Hollywood in one of its golden ages is fascinating." —Chicago Tribune

In his brilliant and dazzling new novel, Gore Vidal sweeps us into one of the most fascinating periods of American political and social change. The time is 1917. In Washington, President Wilson is about to lead the United States into the Great War. In California, a new industry is born that will transform America: moving pictures. Here is history as only Gore Vidal can re-create it: brimming with intrigue and scandal, peopled by the greats of the silver screen and American politics, from Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks to Franklin D. Roosevelt and the author's own grandfather, the blind Senator Gore. With Hollywood, Vidal once again proves himself a superb storyteller and a perceptive chronicler of human nature's endless deceptions.
From the Paperback edition.

Review:

Who could possibly resist a novel that begins as William Randolph Hearst falls on his behind? The fifth novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire sequence (sixth, however, in order of publication) begins on the eve of American involvement in the First World War and ends shortly after the mysterious death of Warren G. Harding and ascension of the taciturn Calvin Coolidge to the presidency. Balanced against Gore's descriptions of all these political machinations is the story of newspaper publisher Caroline Sanford's foray into film acting, which places her in proximity to the scandals involving Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and William Desmond Taylor. The cast of characters includes a young Franklin Delano Roosevelt--and his mistress, Lucy Mercer--and Vidal's maternal grandfather, Senator T.P. Gore. As always, the proceedings are enlivened by Vidal's caustic wit. --Ron Hogan