LITERARY OCCASIONS: ESSAYS

New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 206 pages. Retrospective collection of essays. One of V. S. Naipaul's finest achievements. The first appearance of the title in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with the Softcover Edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents V. S. Naipaul's "Literary Occasions: Essays". The companion volume to the massive "The Writer And The World". It is also scrupulously edited with a brilliant Introduction by Pankaj Mishra. "His sharp reminiscences reveal the source of his unflinching, often controversial analyses of cultural assumptions, the politics of prejudice, and the unreliability of history as he considers the confounding disconnection between his early desire to be a writer and his inability to lose himself in books because what he read had so little to do with his life. In writing about his painful struggle to find his writing voice, Naipaul considers the legacy of imperialism and relates the incredibly moving story of his father, a self-taught writer. Naipaul's vigorous interpretations of Conrad, Dickens, and R. K. Narayan, and candid self-disclosure cogently explicate the mysterious call to write and celebrate the radiance literature brings to lives otherwise relegated to the shadows" (Booklist) . The collection ends, aptly and beautifully, with "Two Worlds", Naipaul's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, a summing-up of his magnificent career. "Plot is for those who already know the world; narrative is for those who want to discover it. This is what I would ask of the writer: How much of the modern world does his work contain?" (V. S. Naipaul) . "The greatest writer of English prose" (London Observer) . Bar none. Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul died on August 11, 2018 at the age of 85. An absolute "must-have" title for V. S. Naipaul collectors. This title is a late-modern classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. Winner of the Booker Prize in 1971 for "In A Free State". Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001. One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER V. S. NAIPAUL TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0375415173.