Nine Women : Short Stories.

GRAU, Shirley Ann:

Published by Pennsylvania: The Franklin Library: Signed First edition, 1985

About this Item

8vo., [xii], 204pp., illustrated by Anthony Russo, silk ribbon marker, marbled endpapers, all edges blocked in gilt, bound in quality full blue leather, covers blocked with ornate gilt designs, spine gilt decorated in compartments with raised bands and gilt lettering. A very fine bright clean copy. This LIMITED FIRST EDITION of NINE WOMEN, is the true first edition of the book and precedes the trade edition, has been Privately Printed, and personally SIGNED by Shirley Ann Grau exclusively for members of The Signed First Edition Society. A total of 201 various classic First Editions by various authors were issued by the Franklin Library from 1983 until they ceased publishing in 2000. These books are highly collectible and are no longer available directly from the publisher. Shirley Ann Grau (born, 1929) is an American writer. She was born in New Orleans, and her work is set primarily in the Deep South, and explores issues of race and gender. As titled, nine stories, each about another woman--some poor but more rich, some black but more white (though some of the black seem white); and each story and each woman poetic in a fleeting way. These are works about disappearance, about ending. In "Hunter," a woman loses her family but miraculously herself survives a terrible air-crash; thereafter she flies constantly--looking for the same crack in time that allowed her to escape death. . .but now wanting in, to be able to join her husband and children. In "Letting-Go" a divorcing young woman stops trying to matter to her monstrously self-absorbed old parents--a particularly fine, bitter story. In "Home," a lesbian couple--two professional women--face the crisis that follows the wish of the younger one to bear a child, to have something of her own that will continue beyond the now; and in "Housekeeper," a widow goes to work for a retired doctor, a man who literally uses himself up in successive hobbies and pursuits. Less successful are the simply scenic stories: "Ending"--a wealthy black family recovering from a wedding: pure soap opera; and "Summer Shore"--a rich summer colony's last alcoholic bash of the season. Seller Inventory # 3764

Bibliographic Details

Title: Nine Women : Short Stories.

Publisher: Pennsylvania: The Franklin Library: Signed First edition

Publication Date: 1985

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition