THE ALEPH AND OTHER STORIES 1933-1969 - UNCORRECTED PROOF COPY
New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1970. First American Edition. Item #7982
First Printing. Quarto (28.25cm); photomechanically reproduced sheets, comb-bound into light blue printed covers; [10],11-172,[2]pp. Publisher's rubber stamp appearing on half-title page, with the tentative date (Nov.16, 1970) and tentative price ($7.95) written in blue pen, and the rubber stamp of the Crane Duplicating Service appearing on inner rear cover. Some very subtle toning to covers, with a handful of faint, tiny stains, and a few faint creases to same; Near Fine, housed in a custom clamshell case.
Proof copy of the author's sixth book translated into English, and together with Ficciones, the collection he considered his major work. The volume collects 20 stories – eleven of which had never previously appeared in book form in English – and a lengthy autobiographical essay. While many of these works are exceptional metaphysical fantasies, the title work stands above the others, describing "a magical point in space which contains all others, and in which the whole infinite universe can be glimpsed" (Barron, Fantasy Literature 3-43). The English versions of these stories are superb; to this point, di Giovanni's translations were the only ones done with Borges's collaboration. While no hard numbers are known for how many such proofs were printed, marketing materials for Crane from this period suggest they would not undertake a job printing fewer than 11 copies of a proof, with other known examples from this period numbering between two to three dozen. Uncommon. Becco 281.
Price: $1,500.00