CONVERSATIONS WITH STANLEY KAUFFMANN: LITERARY CONVERSATIONS SERIES

Jackson, MS: University Press, 2003. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. Jackson, MS: University Press, 2003. Hardcover. Fine/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 212 pages. The author's collection of interviews. Published in a small and limited print run of 500 copies by a university press, the University Press of Mississippi, as part of the now-legendary "Literary Conversations" Series. This First Hardcover Edition was sold to public libraries only and was never reissued. Should not be confused with the regular trade Softcover Edition. The First Edition is now rare. Without DJ, as issued. Presents, in the most collectible format possible, "Conversations With Stanley Kauffmann". A representative selection of interviews conducted by various writers, journalists, and scholars with the author. Stanley Kauffmann is one of only two film critics included in the Series, the other being Pauline Kael, his polar opposite, the passionate and opinionated "film fan" to his reflective "film thinker". That Kael has had a much larger audience - and influence - says a lot about the current state of film criticism and American film itself, most of it negative because Kauffmann was the stronger critic. Gives a rich, complex, and lively overview of both the life and mind of one of America's most important critics. Presented in chronological order, the interviews cumulatively amount to an absorbing account of one of the greatest critical journeys of the 20th century, which is the explicit intention of the publisher with each writer who is included in the Series. An absolute "must-have" title for Stanley Kauffmann collectors. This copy comes with a 3 X 4 inch Author's Bookplate that is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen by E. L. Doctorow. The Bookplate is neatly and discreetly pasted on the Back Inside Cover (rather than the front, from which it was clearly removed and then relocated). It could be Doctorow's personal copy, but I have not been able to verify it independently. This title is a great collection. As far as we know, this is the only copy (with Signed Bookplate) of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have very serious flaws, are former library copies, or the Softcover Edition. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. One of the greatest American critics of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER STANLEY KAUFFMANN TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1578065658.