them

Franklin Center, Pennsylvania: The Franklin Library, 1979. Signed, Limited Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Steven H. Stroud. [20], 601, [6] pages. Illustrations. Printed on archival paper with gilded edges. The endsheets are of moire fabric with a silk ribbon page marker. Smyth sewing and concealed muslin joints. This book is in full leather with hubbed spines. It includes A Special message to subscribers from Joyce Carol Oates. "Alone among my novels them is prefaced by an Author's Note, terse, equivocal, and possibly helpful--at the very least by directing the reader's attention to the fact, not a negligible one, that the title them refers to certain people and is not a shorthand "poetic" was of alluding to all Americans. Who are these People?--Loretta and her children, Jules and Maureen, and to a lesser extent their father, their stepfather, their uncle Brock, their lost sister Bette, their young brother Randolph? They are Americans--infected in part, by the glamour of America, the adventure of aggressive and futile dreams--but they are not Americans most of us know....Of course, I lived in Detroit at the time of the 1967 riots, and was shaken by the experience...Maurenne Wendall, like Jules, is a composite character...I see shadowy aspects of myself in her, I recognize my voice in hers in a way I would not have admitted when I wrote the novel... Joyce Carol Oates (born 1938) is a writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. She has won awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel them, two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize. In the book's foreword, Oates writes that them is based for the most part upon the life of a real family. The main character, "Maureen Wendall," contacted Oates by mail after she had failed a college course taught by the author, and these letters are included (presumably verbatim) in the novel, about two-thirds of the way through the text. Saying that "the novel practically wrote itself," Oates organized the story and recast it as fiction, but at certain points she revised the text to include "Maureen Wendall's" words verbatim. Oates noted that, rather than sensationalizing the story of the Wendalls to make slum life more lurid, she softened some sections so that they would not overwhelm the reader. She said that the confessional aspect was, at least temporarily, extremely therapeutic to "Maureen Wendall" and that all the family members were still living. In an addendum to the afterword, Oates said that the "realist" element was a literary device: all characters and events were entirely fictional. She wrote Maureen's letters, and the "Miss Oates" to whom the letters are written is also a fictional character. At the time (1962-1967), Oates used the name of Joyce Smith. This outstanding book is bound in genuine leather and features gilded, sewn in pages and ribbon marker, simply superb quality, Franklin Library at its best. The Franklin Library was a division of The Franklin Mint that produced fine collector edition books over three decades ending in the year 2000. For this reason all Franklin Library editions are now considered "out of print" and are no longer available for sale from the Franklin Mint. The Franklin Library produced books in three different binding styles referred to as full genuine leather, imitation leather, and quarter bound genuine leather. The full leather bound editions were produced through out the Franklin Library's full life span and the other two styles (imitation and quarter bound) were only produced through the 1970's and 80's. Below are some of the characteristics found in all Franklin Library editions along with more detailed information about the different binding styles. All Editions: • High quality paper; • Pages that are sewn not glued into the binding; • Gold gilded page edges on all three sides; • Raised spine bands that give each book that distinctive antique look. The genuine full leather bound editions are the highest quality of the three. While most characteristics remained constant through out the different series and years of production the style of end papers varied from silk moiré to decorative paper. Some of the characteristics that remained constant: • Full genuine leather binding; • 22k. gold lettering and stampings on the spine and covers; and • Attached silk page marker.