A FIELD GUIDE TO THE NORTH AMERICAN FAMILY: AN ILLUSTRATED NOVELLA

New York City, NY: Mark Batty Publisher, 2007. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. New York City, NY: Mark Batty Publisher, 2007. Hardcover. As New/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 145 pages. The author's debut novella, with accompanying visual narrative. One of Garth Risk Hallberg's finest achievements. The true First Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the 2017 Alfred A. Knopf Softcover Edition, published ten years later. Published in a small and limited first print run by a small fine press, Mark Batty Publisher, as a hardcover original only. Without DJ, as issued. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Garth Risk Hallberg's "A Field Guide To The North American Family: An Illustrated Novella". One of the most original and imaginative books of and for our time, quirkily so. "Part fiction, part reference work, part photo-essay. Invites readers and participants to consider the state of the family - and to explore the future of the book" (Publisher's blurb). The "future of the book", as far as Hallberg and Mark Batty are concerned, is collage, enhancing the written word with graphic design and visual narrative. The sixty-three photographs within the book amount to another narrative of its own about its subject, the American Family. Intentionally so, the image-sequence does NOT correspond to the written narrative, which would be our usual expectation of "illustration" that the book brilliantly subverts. An absolute "must-have" title for Garth Risk Hallberg collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed, placed, and dated in black ink-pen on the title page by the author: "Garth Risk Hallberg 11.20.15 NYC". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary classic. This is one of very 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 have serious flaws or are the Softcover Edition. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. One of the most brilliant American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER GARTH RISK HALLBERG TITLE IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0977985091.