THE DEAN'S DECEMBER Hardcover - 1982

New York City, NY: Harper & Row, 1982. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/As New Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Harper & Row, 1982. Hardcover. As New/As New. First Edition/First Printing. 312 pages. The author's ninth novel. One of Saul Bellow's finest achievements. Limited Slipcased Edition of 500 numbered and signed copies. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the regular trade edition. The Limited Edition is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Harper & Row: Regular-sized volume format. Maroon cloth boards with gilt titles embossed on spine, as issued. Text by Saul Bellow. Marbled endpapers. Matching maroon cloth slipcase. Printed on archival stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. In protective plastic DJ, as issued. Presents, in its Limited Edition format, Saul Bellow's "The Dean's December". His autobiographical novel, as indeed everything Bellow ever wrote was profoundly autobiographical. "Albert Corde is a professor of journalism and dean of students at a Chicago university. He and his wife, Minna, travel to Bucharest, Romania, where Minna's mother has suffered a stroke. As Corde tries to adapt to life in his mother-in-law's small apartment and cope with her relations and friends, news filters through of problems he left behind in Chicago: One of his students has been murdered, and a series of articles he is writing offends powerful and influential Chicagoans he had thought of as friends. Gradually it becomes clear that Corde's trip abroad is more than a brief interlude in a calm and orderly life, and that nothing will ever be the same again" (Publisher's blurb). "For the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work" (Nobel Prize Citation). An absolute "must-have" title for Saul Bellow collectors. This is a copy of the Limited Slipcased Edition of 500 numbered and signed copies, indicated/numbered as such on the Front Limitation Page. It is very prominently and beautifully signed in black fountain pen by Saul Bellow. This title is a great novel. This is one of few copies of the Limited Edition still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. It is the single most beautiful copy we have ever seen. Please note: Copies of the Limited Edition available online inexplicably have serious flaws yet command as much as $400. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976. Winner of The National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Literature in 1990. One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER SAUL BELLOW TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0060148497.