"TURNING SPECULATIVE FICTION INTO A HOME FOR BLACK EXPRESSION": FIRST EDITION OF THE SECOND BOOK IN OCTAVIA BUTLER'S PATTERNIST SERIES, MIND OF MY MIND, BOLDLY SIGNED BY HER

BUTLER, Octavia. Mind of My Mind. Garden City: Doubleday, 1977. Octavo, original green paper boards, original dust jacket.

First edition of the second published book in Butler's award-winning Patternist series—"the first science fiction author to be granted a MacArthur fellowship"—signed on the title page by her.

Butler's series covers the lives and progeny of two godlike shape-shifters, Doro and Anyanwu, whose offspring "give birth to the pattern, which is a telepathic matrix" (Hampton, Octavia E. Butler, 246; original emphasis). Mind of My Mind, the second published book in the series, begins with the Doro's continuing attempt to create his own race, one that "comes to apparent fruition with the creation of his telepathic daughter Mary" (Anatomy of Wonder II-200). "But, to Doro's astonishment, Mary's first instinct on attaining her full powers is to begin building a mental community"—a pattern of her own (Kirkus). "Informed by evolutionary biology and the potential of genetic engineering, Butler developed a fantastic sociobiology… crucially, because she does not assume that biology determines destiny… she finds hope in recasting humanity as a species" (Kilgore & Samantraim, Memorial, 353-356). Butler, who died in 2006, "committed her life to turning speculative fiction into a home for Black expression… she became the first science fiction author to be granted a MacArthur fellowship, and the first Black woman to win Hugo and Nebula awards" (New York Times). Her work both revolutionized the genre and is "rooted… in African American history and literature" (African American National Biography). First edition, first printing: with "First Edition" stated on the copyright page. The second published work in the Patternist series, Mind of My Mind is chronologically a sequel to Wild Seed (1980). The Patternist books, in order of publication, are: Patternmaster (1976), Mind of My Mind (1977), Survivor (1978), Wild Seed (1980) and Clay's Ark (1984). Calvin, Octavia E. Butler Bibliography, 485. Pringle, Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, 2nd edition, 238. See Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-200.

A fine copy.