OUR STORY BEGINS: NEW AND SELECTED STORIES

New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 380 pages. The author's fourth collection of short stories. One of the finest literary collections of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly copies that are signed on a tipped-in page. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Tobias Wolff's "Our Story Begins: New And Selected Stories". A summing-up of sorts from our Hemingway: Ten new pieces and twenty-one of his best stories, culled from his three previous collections. "A volume that belongs on everybody's shelf along with Hemingway's 'In Our Time', Salinger's 'Nine Stories', and the collected works of Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, William Trevor, and Alice Munro. Wolff conjures up stories that etch in your memory, which is to say, they become a part of you. This makes him, in my book, a very great writer indeed" (Marianne Wiggins). Apart from the fact that the new stories appear in book form for the first time, Tobias Wolff made significant revisions to many of the classic stories. Wolff writes that he has never viewed any of his works as sacred texts. He has re-written what he considered "clumsy" passages and removed whole "superfluous" sections in many of the most beloved earlier pieces, making a comparison between the originals and their revised versions in this volume a rewarding and illuminating experience. A perfectionist to the core, it is appropriate that Wolff should call his fourth collection a new beginning. An absolute "must-have" title for Tobias Wolff collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Tobias Wolff. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page, as copies from the publisher are. This title is a great collection. 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 very serious flaws, are in multiple subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce signed copy thus. Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1985 for "The Barracks Thief". One of the most influential and important American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER TOBIAS WOLFF TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1400044596.