VERY FONDLY INSCRIBED BY JOHN GARDNER WITH A SELF-PORTRAIT
GARDNER, John. October Light. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. Octavo, original brown cloth, original dust jacket. $1250.
First edition, presentation copy, very warmly inscribed and signed by Gardner, “To Andre & Florence, Among the best friends I have. With love, John.” Beneath the inscription Gardner has drawn a wonderful caricaturized self-portrait, with an outstretched arm holding a flower.
The recipient, Andre L. Speyer, played French horn for the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops. Gardner mentions Speyer in the novel (pp. 234, 366), describing his horn as "a sound to make your bones tingle, solid and true as a golden cup, full of light and air as love, soaring…"
Fine condition. A most desirable presentation copy.