Paradise [Signed, Numbered]

New York and Archer City, TX: Simon and Schuster and Three Dog Books, 2001. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. This is one of 50 numbered copies, signed by McMurtry, and issued by his local bookstore. For a number of years, Three Dog Books put out these limited editions using the trade edition of the book to which they added an ink stamp limitation statement. This is, I think, the smallest limitation of any title they did.

Paradise is one of McMurtry's late, enigmatic non-fiction books, here described on the dust jacket as "an inviting travel book [about a voyage to Tahiti] and an insightful reflection on his parents' marriage." On its face, not the most promising of premises, but it's useful to remember that McMurtry was a fine writer. Your cataloguer's wife, herself a novelist and non-fiction writer, read Paradise on our recent trip to Tahiti. Her first response was, "Well, I guess if you are Larry McMurtry and you write 30,000 words on Tahiti, they let you publish it as a book." A few months later, when the book came up in conversation, she added to her initial assessment: "That book on Tahiti is fucking amazing."

159 pages. First edition (first printing, with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. This is copy 32 of 50 signed by McMurtry.