Gilbert, Elizabeth

The Signature of All Things

ISBN: 9780670024858
New York, NY: Viking/ The Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2013. First Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Elizabeth Gilbert. "Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this sweeping novel follows the fortunes of the Whittakers- a family of botanical explorers, led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker, a poor-born Englishman who makes his fortune in the South American quinine trade and swiftly becomes the richest man in the New World. His daughter, Alma, born into great luxury in 1800, ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. She is brilliant and insatiable, driven by an unquenchable sense of wonder, and also by a desperate need to understand the hidden mechanisms behind all life itself. But as Alma's research takes her deeper into the central mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man who draws her in the opposite direction- into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical." (from front flap) The acclaimed novel by Elizabeth Gilbert (b. 1969), the popular American Journalist & author who is most famous for her best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love (2006). Hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket (with $28.95 price & "1013" printed on front flap), first edition, first printing as indicated by number sequence on copyright page. An exquisite production, with paste-down & endpaper color, black-&-white interior reproductions of historic botanical illustrations- all from the periods of this sweeping & intensely researched story of science, spirituality & seduction. On the title page, below her printed name, Gilbert has hand-written her signature in bold black ink. A major Gilbert collectible, quite rare in this original form & with her signature. Book in very fine condition with only a hint of wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; one very small area of several tiny spots, one with miniscule loss of grey-green surface paper, at blank portion of spine below "All" in title (all gilt lettering thereon & on front cover completely bright & intact); otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Dust jacket fine with only a touch of rubbing to front, back covers & spine; very slight wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same & flaps; sticker stating "Autographed/ Copy" near lower right edges/ corner of front cover slightly obscuring illustration (we hate these crass stickers, but they are unavoidably ubiquitous, & difficult to remove without damage). Very Fine / Fine. [Item #4906]

Price: $75.00