PLAIN AND NORMAL - Rare Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing: Signed by James Wilcox - SIGNED ON THE TITLE PAGE

1st Printing. Signed. 277 pages. Published in 1998. The author's seventh novel. One of James Wilcox's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents James Wilcox's "Plain And Normal". How to write a great "gay" novel if you are a "versatile" straight writer. "Severinus Lloyd Norris strives for a life of stasis amidst an emergent midlife crisis brought on less by age than by the people in his life. Pearl May, his beautiful wife of over 20 years, has just divorced him, and has been encouraging Lloyd to come out of the closet and eventually, out of their shared home in Yonkers. Lloyd fights with all his heart to live a plain and normal life. With a supporting cast of characters, he doesn't stand a chance. This satiric romp on the pains of growing older should attract new readers to one of the late-20th century's smartest comic novelists" (Kera Bolonik). It is a crying shame that James Wilcox's entire body of work has not received the kind of universal recognition that it so richly deserves, otherwise accorded too many inferior, undeserving writers, products of American media hype. The reason is that he writes social comedy - there is no other kind in literature - which is looked down upon as the lesser art, not to be taken seriously, except, of course, by readers and critics who do take literature seriously. An absolute "must-have" title for James Wilcox collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by James Wilcox. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a late-modern 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. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are in subsequent editions, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. "Modern Baptists" is regarded by Harold Bloom as one of the canonical works of the 20th century. One of the finest writers of the 20th century and our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER JAMES WILCOX TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 0316940267.…