The Book of Imaginary Beings [Signed by Borges]

NY: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1969. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Fine. A rare signed example of this compelling work of cryptozoology by the Argentinian master: an alphabetical compendium of 120 imaginary beasts culled from various literary and world-historical sources. As in many of his best-known works, Borges here takes an existing literary form--the medieval bestiary--and imbues it with new dimension through a variety of quintessentially Borgesian tactics. These include satire, tonal experiments, and the inclusion of entries that push at the limits of what we might consider fantastical beasts ("An Animal Imagined by Kafka," "Animals in the Form of Spheres," etc.). The result is uniquely hybrid text, as much a work about cultural history and the boundaries of the human imagination as it is about imaginary beings themselves. First English-language edition, following Spanish-language editions of 1957 and 1967. Here newly revised and enlarged by Borges and the translator, Norman Thomas di Giovanni. Signed and dated ("1969") by Borges on the front free endpaper. Octavo (6 x 9.5 in.); 256pp., indexed; maroon cloth boards, in dust jacket. Very good (+) with mild sun fading to the softened spine ends and board perimeters, faint damp stains at base of front board and top of rear board, and one small spot of soiling to the textblock fore-edge. In a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.