THE LAST CASTLE (SIGNED BY ILLUSTRATOR); Illustrated by Alicia Austin

San Francisco, CA: Underwood/Miller, 1980. First cloth edition. Hardcover. Very Good / Very Good Plus. Alicia Austin. Small folio, 12.25 in x 9.25 in., pp. 116, [1]. Illustrated with color frontispiece and 21 black and white ink drawings. SIgnature of illustrator laid in on card slip (8.25 in x 4 in.). Light plum boards with silver title to spine. Light rubbing to extremities. Corners lightly nudged. Very light rubbing to top edge of dustjacket. Protected in mylar. First cloth edition limited to 1200 copies.

"Jack (John Holbrook) Vance (San Francisco, August 28, 1916 - Oakland, May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen. Other pen names (each used only once) included Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See, and Jay Kavanse. Among his awards are: Hugo Awards, in 1963 for The Dragon Masters, in 1967 for The Last Castle, and in 2010 for his memoir This is Me, Jack Vance!; a Nebula Award in 1966, also for The Last Castle; the Jupiter Award in 1975; the World Fantasy Award in 1984 for life achievement and in 1990 for Lyonesse: Madouc; an Edgar (the mystery equivalent of the Nebula) for the best first mystery novel in 1961 for The Man in the Cage; in 1992, he was Guest of Honor at the WorldCon in Orlando, Florida; and in 1997 he was named a SFWA Grand Master. A 2009 profile in the New York Times Magazine described Vance as 'one of American literature's most distinctive and undervalued voices.'" (from Jack Vance FB site).