FIRST EDITION OF JOHN WILLIAMS' ONLY NATIONAL BOOK AWARD-WINNING NOVEL, AUGUSTUS, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR

WILLIAMS, John. Augustus. New York: Viking, (1972). Octavo, original half green cloth, cartographic endpapers, original dust jacket. $5500.

First edition of Williams' "spectacular historical saga," his last book published in his lifetime, a handsome presentation copy inscribed on the half title by the author: "For Raisie Rifkin, with the best wishes of John Williams."

"The genius of this astonishing American writer is that he shows how lives that seem utterly strange can be very like our own" (Gray, New Statesman). Augustus, the last novel published in Williams' lifetime, followed his 1965 novel, Stoner, which ultimately won acclaim as "the greatest novel you've never heard of" (New Yorker). Williams' exploration of the life of the Roman emperor, praised as a "spectacular historical saga," was his only National Book Award winner, sharing the honor with John Barth's Chimera in 1973. As in all of Williams' extraordinary work, Augustus explores how "the lives we end up with are the often unexpected products of the friction between us and the world itself" (Daniel Mendelsohn). First edition, first printing: with no statement of edition or printings on the copyright page. Inscribed to Joan "Raisie" Rifkin, daughter of prominent businessman and philanthropist Adolph Kiesler. Kiesler was a major supporter of the University of Denver, where Williams did his B.A. and M.A. work and then taught for many years. Copies of Augustus signed by Williams are scarce, and this association copy offers a particularly nice connection to the author's academic career.

Book and dust jacket with light wear to extremities. A near-fine signed copy.