THE SELECTED WORKS OF T.S. SPIVET de Larsen, Reif (Author/Illustrator) & Gibson, Ben (Co-Illustrator) - 2009

New York City, NY: The Penguin Press, 2009. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: The Penguin Press, 2009. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 380 pages. The author's breakthrough debut illustrated novel. One of the most sensational literary debuts of our time. 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. The book is very beautifully produced by Ben Gibson and Reif Larsen, in pictorial hard boards with gilt titles and design on cover and spine, maps and all kinds of delicate illustrations reproduced throughout the book, and a dazzling DJ design by Jeff Middleton. Printed on pristine-white, thick uncoated stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Presents Reif Larsen's "The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet". Still his best book: A brilliant debut about "mapping" (the novel's running theme) the experiences, sensations, and lessons of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, and love. "When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T. S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking him from his family ranch to the museum's hallowed halls. He meticulously maps, charts, and illustrates his exploits. We come to see the world through his eyes, and in his thorough investigation of the outside world he also reveals himself. He discovers the shadowy boundary between fact and fiction and realizes that, for all his analytical rigor, the world around him is a mystery" (Publisher's blurb) . Larsen's mix of text and image is subtle and cunning: "Instead of a direct one-to-one correspondence, there's a satellite-like relationship between the text and the image, a kind of graphical parallelism. TS will talk about his suspicion of the adult male and then include a chart of male-pattern baldness, and it is through these somewhat disparate leaps between text and image, between the main story and the marginalia, that we begin to soak in TS's habits of mind" (Reif Larsen) . The basis of the very fine film adaptation by Jean-Pierre Jeunet called "Amelie". An absolute "must-have" title for Reif Larsen collectors. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few 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 subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. One of the most brilliant American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER COPY OF THIS TITLE IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1594202176.