Pictures of Fidelman: An Exhibition.

MALAMUD, Bernard.

$225.00

Item Number: 93878

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969.

First edition of Malamud’s fifth novel. Octavo, original half cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Susie and Paul Old dear good friends with affection Bern.” The recipients, Suzanne and Paul Shrag were close friends of Malamud and brother of printmaker Karl Schrag. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Catherine Smolich. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell box.

Pictures of Fidelman: An Exhibition is a novel in the form of a short story cycle, which gathers six stories dealing with Arthur Fidelman, an art student from the Bronx who travels to Italy, initially to research Giotto, but also with the hopes of becoming a painter. It was published in 1969 and includes stories from Malamud's earlier collections The Magic Barrel (1958) and Idiots First (1963), plus two previously uncollected stories and one previously unpublished story.