3 By Irving: Setting Free the Bears; The Water-Method Man; The 158-Pound Marriage.

IRVING, John.

$475.00

Item Number: 37055

New York: Random House, 1980.

First edition of this compilation of the author’s first three novels. Octavo, original half cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the title page to his editor David Kent, “For David Kent John Irving with my admiration and affection.” Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Jack Ribik. Introduction by Terrence Des Pres.

John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. He has been nominated for a National Book Award three times-winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. He also received an O. Henry Award, in 1981, for the short story "Interior Space." In 1992, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules-a film with seven Academy Award nominations. In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.