Fledgling.: A Novel. 2005

New York: Seven Stories Press,, 2005. First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the title page, "To Jennifer, Best wishes, Octavia E. Butler". This was Butler's last lifetime publication, and her papers at the Huntington Library include multiple drafts for potential sequels. This title is uncommon signed. Butler, the first Black woman to receive both the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and the first science fiction author to be granted a MacArthur fellowship, "creates powerful images of black women in a genre in which and from which they have traditionally been marginalized and excluded" (Boutler, p. 170). In this, a vampire science fiction novel, Butler transforms the traditionally white and paternalistic vampire myth into an interrogation of race, sexuality, and intimacy. Author Junot Díaz chose it as his 2005 Book of the Year in The Guardian, praising it as a "harrowing meditation on dominance, sex, addiction, miscegenation, and race that completely devours the genre which gave rise to it". The recipient was evidently an avid reader of Butler, with annotations comparing this title to other works by her, and a gloss on the half-title: "Oxford dictionary - Fledgling - noun - a bird just fledged - or - (Fledged) - having large enough wing feathers to fly". Octavo. Original red boards, spine lettered in silver, dark red endpapers. With dust jacket. Spine ends bumped, slight wear to corners, head of rear joint, and foot of front joint, covers rubbed, front cover darkened where previously three stickers were adhered (a star, flower, and circle), marks to fore and lower edges, occasional underlinings in both pen and pencil to the text with a few annotations, pp. 158-169 partially highlighted in green. A good copy in a very good jacket indeed, lightly soiled with a little creasing to edges and trivial damp stains to foot of rear panel, else sharp and unclipped.