THE PEARLKILLERS

London, England: Faber & Faber, 1986. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. London, England: Faber & Faber, 1986. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 205 pages. The author's third collection of novellas. One of Rachel Ingalls' finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the American Edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that sold out shortly after publication. The First Edition is now scarce. Together with "Mrs. Caliban", it is one of the author's most successful and popular books. Features the brilliant cover art/design by Andrzej Klimkowski. Presents Rachel Ingalls' "The Pearlkillers". Her moving homage to her writer-precursor, Isak Dinesen. The collection includes "Third Time Lucky", "People To People", "Inheritance", and "Captain Hendrik's Story". By design, each tale vividly evokes the often weirdly beautiful and disturbing ("Gothic", so-called) universe of Dinesen - yet each is also marked and inspired by Ingalls' unmistakable tenderness and genius. Rachel Ingalls is THE bewildering, eternal recluse among great late-modern writers in English. She never made a public appearance in her fifty-odd-year career as a published writer, and her publishing history is as bewildering as her tales. For devoted reader/collectors, the rules of thumb are fairly simple: a) All of her books first appeared in the United Kingdom, where she lived since 1964; b) All of them have been issued subsequently in the United States, sometimes under altogether different titles; and c) the American Editions remain eminently collectible, particularly for completists, because she has been served well by her publishers here in terms of both content and production values. One of the greatest storyteller-writers of our time, she is a latter-day Isak Dinesen whose theme is the sublime mystery of human existence. Once started, it is impossible to put down a Rachel Ingalls book. An absolute "must-have" title for Rachel Ingalls collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed, dated (before publication), and inscribed in black ink-pen on the front free endpaper by the author: "To Peter, with love from Rachel April 14, 1986". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. The recipient, Peter Molden, who is named, was Rachel Ingalls' British editor. This title is a late-modern classic. This is the best such signed, pre-publication dated, and inscribed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Precedes and should NOT be confused with the American Edition. Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. Rachel Ingalls' "Mrs. Caliban" is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels in the English language of the 20th century. One of the finest writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER RACHEL INGALLS TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0571137954.