"FIERCE, FRANK, BUT VERY FRAGILE": A BRUTALLY CANDID AUTOBIOGRAPHY, SIGNED BY A BASKETBALL LEGEND

WEST, Jerry [with] COLEMAN, Jonathan. West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life. New York: Little, Brown and Company, (2011). Octavo, original black paper boards, original dust jacket. $450.

First edition, first printing of the story of one of the greatest—and possibly most self-loathing—basketball players of all time: Jerry West, an NBA champion, Olympic gold medalist and general manager of the Lakers, boldly signed on the title page by West as well as by co-author Jonathan Coleman.

"From the player so iconic his silhouette forms the NBA logo, a memoir intended to explain himself to fans and to himself… He grapples with the role of a sports hero, a mantle he's loath to embrace, and appears to have made a sincere, if not always successful, attempt at self-awareness. In a genre notorious for merely waving pompoms, West offers an unusually candid account of his personal and professional life" (Kirkus Reviews). Illustrated with 32 pages of color and black-and-white photographs. This is the first trade edition, issued in the same year as a limited edition of 750 copies.

A fine signed copy.