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White, Edmund.
THE BEAUTIFUL ROOM IS EMPTY.
New York City, NY:
Alfred A. Knopf,
1988.
Hardcover.
First Edition/First Printing.
228 pages.
Fine/Fine.
The second novel in the author's "Gay Trilogy". The other titles are "A Boy's Own Story" and "The Farewell Symphony". The present title is a famous line by Franz Kafka. The trilogy will probably be regarded as Edmund White's finest achievement. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Written in Edmund White's effortless, supple prose, which serves him well in this luminously beautiful novel about the wildness of erotic desire, about the alacrity with which "latent" becomes "overt", given the right circumstances, and what is "repressed" is suddenly "expressed", recklessly, adventurously, and ominously, without regard for possibly lethal consequences. "To look only at what a single English sentence can, in White's hands, become is to stand entranced before sensuous grace" (Cynthia Ozick). A "must-have" title for Edmund White collectors. This copy is prominently and beautifully signed in black fountain pen on the title page by Edmund White. It is signed directly on the page, not on a tipped-in page, as many copies online are. At the time of the book's publication, Edmund White was based in Paris, suffering from AIDS, and believed he would never return to America. He was one of the first prominent figures to be diagnosed with the illness, and after more than twenty-five years, remains one of its longest-living survivors (through a cocktail regimen). This title has been out-of-print as a hardcover for a very long time and is now highly collectible. This is one of relatively few signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a beauty. A very scarce signed copy thus. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1994 for "Genet". Anointed by Vladimir Nabokov as his American successor. One of the finest living American writers. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER EDMUND WHITE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0394564448. $100.00
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White, Edmund.
THE BEAUTIFUL ROOM IS EMPTY.
New York City, NY:
Alfred A. Knopf,
1988.
Hardcover.
First Edition/First Printing.
228 pages.
Fine/Fine.