Women and Men: A Novel [Inscribed to Angela Carter]

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987. First Edition. First Printing, trade issue. Thick octavo (24.25cm); dark grey paper-covered boards and white cloth backstrip, with titles stamped in black on spine, and in gilt on front cover; dustjacket; [xiv],[4],5-1191,[11]pp. Signed by the author on the title page, and inscribed by him several weeks after publication to Angela Carter on the front endpaper: "To Angela Carter / it's a real thrill to inscribed this book to you, my neighbor, and I hope you like the book / Joe McElroy / April 7, 1987." Tiny nick to cloth at lower backstrip, lower corners gently tapped (though still sharp), with a faint, tiny stain to lower edge of textblock; the inscription has a few tiny spatter marks, none of which affect legibility; Very Good+ or better. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $27.50), lightly edgeworn, with a small closed tear at upper spine panel, and a tiny tear toward lower spine panel; Very Good+.

McElroy's sixth novel, centered around "the lives (twined by sexual confusion, urban stress, and political or paranoid complication, granted) of the occupants of one lower Manhattan apartment building" (Kirkus Reviews). A wonderful association copy, inscribed by McElroy to English novelist and short story author Angela Carter (1940-1992). The previous owner of this volume relayed that in conversation, McElroy confessed to him that while he and Carter were never actually physical neighbors, he considered them to be "intellectual neighbors." He thought highly enough of her debut short story collection Fireworks (1974) that he contributed the following jacket blurb: "Angela Carter's stories are a wonderful surprise to me – exotic maps that speak out loud the secrets by which eyes can be juggled and forests understood, and where happy endings exist stranger than in all our real lives." 85675. (Inventory #: 85675)