Cheever, John

The Leaves The Lion Fish and The Bear

Los Angeles, CA: Sylvester & Orphanos, 1980. Limited First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Signed by John Cheever. "I think of an autumn afternoon in a house outside Newburyport. I had been playing football, a fact I throw in lest someone think I was housebound. I was reading Romain Rolland. It was that long ago. Had I wanted to write a narrative- a story- about the place, there was an abundance of raw material. My host was having an affair with the cook. At that hour on Sunday afternoon, he was probably in her cozy bed. My brother was having an affair with a neighbor's wife. They were probably in the woods. The mortgage payments were overdue. The bank had made a threatening call on Friday. The Myopia Hunt Club had ridden through the cornfield and had refused to pay damages. All of this could be worked into a tale, but what concerned me was the opening of a door." (first paragraph, pg. 1) A classic short story by John Cheever (1912-1982), the great American author who has been canonized in the Library of America series. Cheever is especially acclaimed for his short stories, & as his excellent biographer Blake Bailey writes in one of the LOA editions he edited, Cheever's "...stories rank among the finest achievements of twentieth-century fiction." Originally published in Esquire magazine during 1974, this cozy-yet-menacing little polished gem with its exemplary, outwardly genteel American WASP setting (notice the sly-punning name of the hunt club quoted above...) & a seemingly confessional but proverbially unreliable narrator is offered here in a beautiful limited production issued in 1980. Hardcover in illustrated boards with cloth spine to which strip with title & author is affixed, in publisher's clear protective jacket. One of 300 hand-numbered copies signed by Cheever at colophon, this is copy No. 193/300. A most rare & desirable Cheever collectible. Book in very fine condition with only a touch of wear to edges & corners of boards & spine; otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Publisher's dust jacket good-to-near-fine with very slight rubbing, scratching to front, back covers & spine; medium-size closed vertical tears at left & right areas of back cover from upper edge down. We have over-wrapped this with our own clear protective jacket. Very Fine / Good- Near Fine. [Item #5214]

Price: $150.00