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Lot 7132: Eudora Welty THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER 1972 Author-Signed First Printing Pulitzer Prize For Fiction-Winning Short Novel

Est: $50 USD - $200 USDSold:
National Book AuctionsFreeville, NY, USFebruary 28, 2010

Item Overview

Description

Title: The Optimist's Daughter: A Novel
Author: Eudora Welty
Publisher: Random House
Printing Year: 1972 Author-Signed First Printing

Condition/Details: Bound in gray cloth with bright gilt embossing, this volume is a scarce autographed original edition of this work by Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 - July 23, 2001), an award-winning American author who wrote short stories and novels about the American South.

"The Optimist's Daughter" is a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winning 1972 short novel. It concerns a woman named Laurel, who travels to New Orleans to take care of her father, Judge McKelva, after he has surgery for a detached retina. He fails to recover from the surgery, though, surrenders to his age, and dies slowly as Laurel reads to him from Dickens. Her father's second wife Fay, who is younger than Laurel, is a shrewish outsider from Texas. Her shrill response to the Judge's illness appears to accelerate his demise. Laurel and Fay are thrown together when they return the Judge to his home town of Mount Salus, Mississippi, where he will be buried. There, Laurel is immersed in the enveloping good neighborliness of the friends and family she knew before marrying and moving away to Chicago. Fay, though, has always been unwelcome and takes off for a long weekend, leaving Laurel in the big house full of memories. Laurel encounters her mother's memory, her father's life after he lost his first wife, and the complex emotions surrounding her loss and the wave of memories in which she swims. She comes to a place of understanding that Fay can never share, and leaves small town Mississippi with the memories she can carry with her.

The author's inscription on title page reads "With good wishes, / Eudora Welty / April 1994." The volume shows very light external age/wear, and is solidly bound with clean pages. Intact dustjacket is in mylar cover. The book measures approximately 5 3/4" x 8 1/2" and contains 180 pages. Shipping cost (within the U.S.) for this lot will be: $4.50

Artist or Maker

Payment & Shipping

Payment

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We take care to pack well, and ship in a timely fashion. Buyer pays for stated shipping within the United States, international customers please contact us for a shipping quote. We offer reduced shipping for winners of multiple lots, as follows: buyer pays full shipping amount of the won lot that bears the highest shipping charge, and receives a 30% discount on the stated shipping amount for all other won lots. For example, a winner of three lots with stated shipping charges of $4.50, $6.50 and $8.00 will pay $15.70 rather than the full $19.00. All books and other media ship via USPS Media Mail. Typical delivery time within the continental U.S. is 5-10 days. If your order is time sensitive, please contact us for a Priority Mail upgrade. Insurance is available and recommended (please note that by declining insurance, you assume the risk of loss or damage in transit) on shipped packages at a rate of $1.30 per $50.00 of coverage (please let us know if you are adding insurance to your total). All shipments with a total hammer value of $200.00 or greater will require mandatory insurance coverage and that charge will be added to the shipping amount on the invoices.

Auction Details

Books and Ephemera - Sendak, Antique, Pulitzers, etc.

by
National Book Auctions
February 28, 2010, 12:00 PM EST

2085 Dryden Rd. (Route 13), Freeville, NY, 13068, US

Terms

Buyer's Premium

23.0%

Bidding Increments

From:To:Increment:
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$30$59$5
$60$149$10
$150$499$25
$500$1,499$50
$1,500$2,999$100
$3,000$9,999$250
$10,000$24,999$500
$25,000$49,999$1,000
$50,000+$2,500

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