FRAUD

New York City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 2001. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 2001. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 228 pages. The author's breakthrough debut collection of essays. David Rakoff's best book. 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. Presents David Rakoff's "Fraud". His glorious masterpiece: The author as the self-confessed, prototypical fish out of water. "Whether impersonating Sigmund Freud in a department store window during the holidays, climbing an icy mountain in cheap loafers, playing an evil modeling agent on a daytime soap opera, or learning primitive survival skills in the wilds of New Jersey, Rakoff doesn't belong. Nor does he try to. But in his attempts not to pull any punches, the most damaging blows land squarely on his jaw, satirizing himself, the writer, and not his subjects. Therein lies David Rakoff's genius: The Wry and the Heartfelt join in his prose to resurrect the most neglected of literary virtues: Wit" (Publisher's blurb). Our very own Oscar Wilde? Yes, our very own Oscar Wilde. An absolute "must-have" title for David Rakoff collectors. This copy is very prominently, beautifully, and lovingly signed and inscribed in black ink-pen on the title page by the author: "For dearest Irene, stalwart champion, dearest friend, boon companion, founding partner of Hoch, Kane & Cheinick, attorneys-at-law, and agent extraordinaire. With boundless love and unquantifiable gratitude, David Rakoff". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. The recipient, who is named, is Irene Skolnick, the legendary literary power-agent, to whom Rakoff dedicated his second book, "Don't Get Too Comfortable" (2005). She died on June 27, 2019, seven years after Rakoff's own untimely death in 2012. This title is a great book. This is, by far, the best such signed and inscribed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: This signed copy is one-of-a-kind. It is also the reason one collects signed copies in the first place: Because the more a writer leaves of himself on the page, the better, not the other way around despite our age of uniformly "simply signed" copies. A rare signed copy thus. One of the most brilliant writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER DAVID RAKOFF TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 038550084X.