The Ultimate Good Luck.

FORD, Richard.

$475.00

Item Number: 123277

London: Collins Harvill, 1989.

First edition of Ford’s second published novel. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the title page to Sally Soames who contributed the author photograph for the dust jacket, “For Sally, Right! Better… Indeed. Genuine, ever complex… Richard Ford.” The recipient, British photojournalist Sally Soames, worked for The Sunday Times from 1968 until 2000 and was highly regarded for her exclusively black and white portraits of many of the most prominent figures of the 20th century including Menachem Begin, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Thatcher, Sean Connery, Rudolf Nureyev, Alec Guinness and Andy Warhol. Soames, who was known to be a warm and personal journalist, performed extensive research on her subjects and developed intimate rapports with them during her process, resulting in striking and revealing portraits. In addition to the several world leaders Soames came to know and photograph, she captured the unique personalities of some of the world’s most gifted authors, poets, and playwrights. She published two books of photographs during her lifetime: Manpower (1987) with text by Robin Morgan and an introduction by Harold Evans and Writers (1995) with a preface by Norman Mailer. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket illustration by David Scutt. Author photograph by Sally Soames.

"Ford's sense of place is extraordinary. His Oaxaca, perpetually strung with Christmas lights and wire-mesh bells, is a tourist town under military law. This is the work of a formidably talented novelist" (Newsweek). "So hardboiled and tough that it might have been written on the back of a trenchcoat. A grant Maltese Falcon of a novel" (Stanley Elkin).