BODY & SOUL: THE LIMITED EDITION

New York City, NY: Houghton And Mifflin, 1993. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. New York City, NY: Houghton And Mifflin, 1993. Hardcover. As New/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 450 pages. The author's debut novel. One of the finest American novels of the 20th century. Limited Slipcased Edition of 250 numbered and signed copies. Precedes and should not be confused with the regular trade edition. Published by Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence as a hardcover original only. An austerely elegant production by the publisher: Regular-sized volume format. Cream linen cloth boards with gilt titles embossed on the cover and spine, as issued. Text by Frank Conroy. Purple endpapers. Red hard board slipcase. Printed on pristine-white, archival stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. In publisher's original shrinkwrap. Without DJ, as issued. Presents, in its Limited Edition format, Frank Conroy's "Body & Soul". After much anticipation and waiting, his first novel: A Dickensian narrative about a musical prodigy that also probes what music means and why there are musical geniuses in the first place. "An engrossing novel, written in a supple and elegant prose, and displaying remarkable insight into the mind of a prodigy. Conroy's protagonist is Claude Rawlings, who grows up in the 1940's in the shadow of New York's Third Avenue El. Claude's education in some ways is similar to Billy Bathgate's: Neglected by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic, cab-driver mother, he shines shoes, lifts coins from sewers, and learns to steal. He is introduced to another world when Aaron Weisfeld, a music store owner, recognizes his musical gifts and transports him to the Park Avenue apartment of a maestro whose Bechstein piano Claude uses and eventually inherits. Even more in the Dickensian mode, Claude falls in love with a cold, arrogant young woman from a patrician New York family. Conroy's depiction of a young boy's discovery of music, the awakening of his sensibility, and the flowering of his genius is brilliant. Lucid explanations of musical theory ranging from basic harmonics to the 12-tone scale, from Bach to Charlie Parker to Schoenberg, provide a continuum of insights and discoveries for Claude and for the reader. The revelation of Claude's patrimony is poignantly rendered and provides another look at the nature of creativity" (Kirkus Reviews). An absolute "must-have" title for Frank Conroy collectors. This is a copy of the Limited Slipcased Edition of 250 numbered and signed copies, indicated as such on the Front Limitation Page. It is very prominently and beautifully numbered and signed in blue ink-pen by Frank Conroy. This title is a late-modern classic. This is one of few copies of the Limited Edition still available online, is still in the publisher's original shrinkwrap, and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Precedes and should NOT be confused with the regular trade edition. A scarce signed copy thus. One of the finest writers of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER FRANK CONROY TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0395437792.