[Item #4648] Reuben. John Edgar Wideman.
Reuben
Reuben
Reuben
Reuben

Reuben

ISBN: 0805003754
New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1987. First Edition. Hardcover. "Reuben, John Edgar Wideman's first work of fiction since the PEN-Faulkner Award winner Sent for You Yesterday, has as its hero a most unlikely character. Reuben is an aging, wizened, slightly humpbacked black man. He lives in an abandoned trailer so cluttered with the detritus of his sixty years that visitors can scarcely find him amid the litter. Yet Reuben is also intelligent- street smart and plain smart- kind, thoughtful, and possessed of an extraordinarily sharp legal mind." (from front flap) The eighth published work of John Edgar Wideman, the acclaimed & prolific African-American novelist, short story writer, memoirist & academician. Honored with many awards & honorary doctorates over the years, Wideman is especially noted for having been the first author to receive the highly prestigious PEN-Faulkner Award for Fiction twice, in 1984 (for Sent for You Yesterday as noted above) & 1991 (for Philadelphia Fire). The unforgettable protagonist of this novel, Reuben, serves the members of his black community as a lawyer, defending them against the oppressive machinations of white-dominated government, police & society (though magnified to a boiling point of late, this is not a new topic in American history & literature...). The people that Reuben helps (even though they usually cannot afford to pay him) are as unforgettable as he is, in varied ways. Hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket (with $16.95 price & "1087" printed on front flap), first edition as stated on copyright page, first printing as indicated by number sequence thereon. An essential collectible in the profound Wideman canon, in its rarest original form. Book in very fine condition with only slight rubbing, browning, fading & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; moderate browning & spotting to upper edge of text block; much less to side & esp. lower edges of same. Interior very fine with only mild spotting, browning to blank paste-downs & endpapers; a bit of bleeding from spots noted above onto blank side edges of a few page leaves. Dust jacket fine with light rubbing, faint scratching & spotting to front, back covers, spine & flaps; light wear & some tiny bumps, creases at thin edges & corners of same esp. spine-edges & corners; one very short, closed vertical tear to lower-left edge of front flap; fading from beige into white of spine background (from sunning or as issued, we're not sure). Very Fine / Fine. [Item #4648]

Price: $50.00