INSCRIBED BY REYNOLDS PRICE

PRICE, Reynolds. A Whole New Life. New York: Atheneum, 1994. Slim octavo, original blue cloth gilt, original dust jacket. $600.

First edition of Price’s account of his battle with cancer, inscribed by him on the title page, “To Susan & Dennis – best hopes. Reynolds Price.”

The acclaimed novelist's memoir of his struggle against spinal cancer "is a hard book to read, especially the first half, scary and full of more detail about sickness, pain and this ruined body than we want to know. Why should a man write such a book? The sufferings are his credentials that validate the remarkable last chapter, which comprises brief rules for calamity he offers those who may come to endure such afflictions" (Robert Kelly, New York Times, contemporary review).

A fine inscribed copy.