SWAMPLANDIA!

New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 325 pages. The author's breakthrough debut novel. Now considered a contemporary classic. 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 DJ design is dazzling, one of the very best DJ designs ever in the history of American publishing. Featuring original art by Luther Daniels Bradley (from 1899), it depicts in period detail a Florida swamp, a terrified, outlandish-looking man in a black coat, a calm little girl perched on his shoulders, and the wide-open jaws of the terrifying alligator. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Karen Russell's "Swamplandia!". Her brilliant first novel. The title, complete with exclamation point, refers to the eponymous tourist attraction that the three child-narrators inherit from their mother and try as best as they could to salvage. "Ravishing, elegiac, funny, and brilliantly inquisitive, Russell's archetypical swamp saga tells a mystical yet rooted tale of three innocents who come of age through trials of water, fire, and air" (Booklist). "A masterpiece" (Jim Shepard). Hailed as such by many other writers as diverse as Stephen King, Emma Donoghue, and Carl Hiassen. An absolute "must-have" title for Karen Russell collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed, placed, and dated (right after she won the MacArthur Genius Grant) in black pen-marker on the title page by the author: "Karen Russell 2.19.13 NYC". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Laid-in is a pristine copy of the Souvenir Announcement of the event during which her signature was obtained. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of few such signed, placed, and dated 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 command as much as $125. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce signed copy thus. Selected as one of the "20 Writers Under 40" of the decade by The New Yorker Magazine. Winner of the MacArthur Genius Grant in 2013 on the basis of just two published books. One of the most brilliant American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER KAREN RUSSELL TITLE IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0307263991.