READING & WRITING: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT

New York City, NY: New York Review Of Books, 2000. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: New York Review Of Books, 2000. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 64 pages. Retrospective collection of essays. One of V. S. Naipaul's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that sold out shortly after publication. The first print run must have been much smaller-than-usual because Second Printings proliferate. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents V. S. Naipaul's "Reading & Writing". His literary/artistic credo, summed up in two sublime essays. "Sifts through memories of his childhood in Trinidad, his university days in England, and his earliest attempts at writing, seeking the experiences of life and reading that shaped his imagination and his growth as a writer. Naipaul's profound reflections on the relations between personal or historical experience and literary form, between the novel and the world, reveal how he came to discover both his voice and the subjects of his writing, and how he learned to turn sometimes to fiction, sometimes to the travel narrative, to portray them truthfully" (Publisher's blurb) . V. S. Naipaul is regarded as one of the greatest novelists of our time, which he is. That he is one of our greatest essayists, which he also is, is less widely acknowledged. There is a simple reason why Naipaul's fiction and "non-fiction" are on the same level of achievement: It has been his life-work to re-invent and re-define writing itself, to go beyond the generic and conventional modes of writing (which account for 99.9% of what is written and read today) , and thereby show why being a writer in our deeply distracted modern world is more necessary and gratifying than ever. Naipaul explored the themes in this volume further in his masterly account, "A Writer's People: Ways of Looking And Feeling" (2008) , the sequel-of-sorts to this volume, and one of the greatest literary texts of our time. "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 contemporary classic. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing 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 0940322382.