Wedding Guest, Signed (4 results)

Condition: Very Good. Signed Copy First edition copy. . Very Good dust jacket. Inscribed by author on title page. [ISBN 9780988377103].

SIGNED Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. First Edition. In taupe boards with black lettering and picture of a ringing alarm clock on spine. Worn jacket with chipping to spine. SIGNED and INSCRIBED by Author on half title page "'I pass like night from land to land. I have strange power of speech.' For Francis. Richard Shaltuck Inscribed at the request of Auntie Muriel for a happy thirteenth birthday." A risque comic mystery that was later filmed. A very good copy. The New York Times reviewer for The Wedding Guest Sat on a Stone (1940) called it ".hilariously funny.a real mystery". Marcia Muller wrote a praiseworthy essay for 1001 Midnights calling the same book "wonderfully amusing.with rich bawdy (for its time) humor." I know I have a sense of humor, but maybe mine is a bit more refined or too quirky. I didn't find much of this book hilarious at all. In fact, I thought much of the humor was simple-minded and tedious. The unusual title comes from Coleridge's Gothic poem The Ancient Mariner and each chapter begins with an epigram from the same poem. As the book takes place during the honeymoon of Sue and Ty Grant it seems appropriate to have a poem about doom and death during a wedding celebration as an ironic source from which to draw allusions. The characters also inexplicably and surprisingly make several highbrow literary references during the action. I say surprisingly because they all act like imbeciles for the bulk of the book. You'd never think they had the smarts to read half the works they make reference to. The entire plot is predicated on the old screwball mystery gimmick of hiding a dead body. Craig Rice did it in The Corpse Steps Out, Jack Trevor Story did it in The Trouble with Harry, but those books at least made me crack a smile. I was rolling my eyes while reading Shattuck's book. Not one chuckle. Not even a snicker. Even with the early bedroom farce bits with Sue running around in her nightgown and crawling into bed (nude, it is implied) with the dead body I failed to see the humor. Later, in an equal opportunity semi-nude scene, her husband runs around town in his underwear. Hilarious. One of the problems with the plot lies in the reasoning for hiding the body in the first place. Four people enter a conspiracy in order to protect Sue -- including Milly, the owner of the hotel "hilariously" named La Cucaracha -- all because they don't want Sue's honeymoon ruined and have the police crawling all over the place. Plus, the murder victim just happens to be one of those characters everyone hates, though the reader never gets to see any behavior that would support the antipathy everyone feels for him. Once he's dead he becomes a prop. He never was human even when he was so briefly alive in the story. So the first half of the book is filled with "hilarious" hiding the body sequences. They take him to a walk in refrigerator, then when the meat is delivered they move him somewhere else at around 2 AM using the ancient and unreliable elevator. Guess what? That's right -- the elevator breaks down. More "hilarity" ensues as the people in the elevator are rescued via a ladder and the attempts to get the now rigor mortis-ized corpse out of the elevator. They are forced to leave the corpse there and wait until someone accidentally discovers it the next day when the elevator is summoned. But, of course, the corpse vanishes and the conspirators have no idea where it went. Until the police show up and tell them. J F Norris Bookseller Inventory # BD1-008-00171.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good Minus. There are only two other signed copies of this book for sale anywhere on the Internet. Their prices are $150.00 and $200.00. My copy is flat-signed on the front free end paper. This book was his debut novel and it made the New York Times Best 100 books of the Year list when it was first published in 1982 when the author was 42 years old. He is now 76 years old and has written 12 novels along with 14 plays. My copy is a Second Printing. I've provided photos of the book itself. You can see there's a little discoloration of the black on the spine and adjacent to the spine on the front cover. There one light spot of soiling (visible only under direct light) near the bottom edge of the yellow part of the front cover. The red lettering on the spine is very bright. There isn't much in the way of wear, just a tiny indent on the top edge of the front cover. The book is also square and tight and very solidly bound. And the pages are very, very clean (I saw only one speck sized spot on the top white margin of page). They are also in excellent condition, very bright, without any creases or dogeared corners, and no one has written their name or anything else anywhere in the book. There aren't any markings or attachments. You can see the dust jacket in the first few photographs. It is NOT price-clipped. It has small imperfections, a little soiling, a 1/4 inch tear off the rear top edge, a 1/8th inch tear off the bottom edge between the rear cover and flap. There's a light scratch, a couple of scuffs. The dust jacket will be fitted with a protective cover. From The New York Times Book Review: 'The Wedding Guest is a splendid first novel. Mr. Wiltse writes like an angel. He is remorselessly skillful in capturing and holding are complete and breathless attention. He has taken formula fiction and thrown away the formula.'. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. 2nd Printing Hardbound Good+/Good+., DJ 8vo, 312, Author inscribed/signed on front endpaper. 2nd printing. General wear to book and DJ. Bottom spine is VG. Top spine - pages are bowed away from binding. Poor storage? DJ is not price clipped. ISBN:0-440-09443-7. Inscribed by Author.