A Summons to Memphis

VERY GOOD condition — DUST JACKET: Minor wear & tear to top and bottom edges of spine, panels, folds and flaps. Cracks to laminate face, top and bottom of spine. Very minor chipping to all outside corners. A couple of small chips to bottom edge, front panel. Very minor stressing to folds. BOARDS: Very good condition. No issues. BOOK: Very good condition. No issues. Please inspect photos closely for condition details.

Here on offer is a very nice copy of Peter Taylor's Putlitzer Prize-winning novel, A Summons to Memphis, his second work set in the urban South and populated by memorable characters. This copy is a 1st trade edition, 1st printing of the work published by Alfred Knopf in 1986 and INSCRIBED by the author on the first free endpaper. The dust jacket is protected from further wear by a Mylar sleeve.

*********************************************************

"One of the most celebrated novels of its time, the Pulitzer Prize winner A Summons to Memphis introduces the Carver family, natives of Nashville, residents, with the exception of Phillip, of Memphis, Tennessee. During the twilight of a Sunday afternoon in March, New York book editor Phillip Carver receives an urgent phone call from each of his older, unmarried sisters. They plead with Phillip to help avert their widower father's impending remarriage to a younger woman.

Hesitant to get embroiled in a family drama, he reluctantly agrees to go back south, only to discover the true motivation behind his sisters' concern. While there, Phillip is forced to confront his domineering siblings, a controlling patriarch, and flood of memories from this troubled past.

Peter Taylor is one of the masters of Southern literature, whose work stands in the company of Eudora Walty, James Agee, and Walker Percy. In A Summons to Memphis, he composed a richly evocative story of revenge, resolution, and redemption, and gave us a classic work of American literature."

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Matthew Hillsman Taylor Jr. (January 8, 1917 – November 2, 1994), known professionally as Peter Taylor, was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Born and raised in Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri, he wrote frequently about the urban South in his stories and novels. . . .

Considered to be one of the finest American short story writers, Taylor made his fictional milieu the urban South, with references to its history. His characters, usually middle or upper-class people, often are living in a time of change in the 20th century, and struggle to discover and define their roles in society.

His collection The Old Forest and Other Stories (1985) won the PEN/Faulkner Award. Taylor also wrote three novels, including A Summons to Memphis in 1986, for which he won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and In the Tennessee Country in 1994. Taylor taught literature and writing at Kenyon and at the University of Virginia. . . .

The above text was taken from, respectively, Knopf publishing (via Google Books) and Wikipedia.