The Joy Luck Club.

TAN, Amy [Larry McMurtry].

$1,600.00

Item Number: 143578

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1989.

First edition, advance reading copy of Tan’s masterpiece. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, “For Larry McMurtry with thanks for the pleasure of your company and your good book. Amy 5 Apr ’90.” The recipient, Larry McMurtry remains best known for his 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove which was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations. McMurtry was also a prominent book collector and bookseller. In 1970 with two partners, he opened a book store in Georgetown, which he named Booked Up and 1988 he opened another Booked Up in Archer City which became one of the largest antiquarian bookstores in the United States, carrying between 400,000 and 450,000 titles. With the original typed transmittal letter signed by Amy Tan on her letterhead which reads in part: April 5, 1990 Dear Larry, I’d be honored to have my bound galley of THE JOY LUCK CLUB gracing your shelves. I keep thinking about your bookstore and what it contains. It reminded me of a time when I was six years old. I had walked into a sweet shop in Oakland with five cents and hundreds of choices of penny candy. Let me tell you, your bookstore was better than that. I didn’t get chased out after two hours of not being able to decide. And I thank you for the gift of A MYSTIC ROSE: RITES OF THE PRIMITIVE MARRIAGE. Tomorrow I celebrate my 16th wedding anniversary, and now I have the perfect sentiment to give to my husband who has endured living with me for so many years… All best, “Amy.” Provenance: From the library of Larry McMurtry with his bookplate which he designed featuring the horseshoe-shaped brand his father and grandfather used on the McMurtry cattle. In very good condition.

"Brilliant... Each story is a fascinating vignette, and together they they weave the reader through a world where the Moon Lady can grant any wish, where a child, promised in marriage at two and delivered at 12, can, with cunning, free herself; where a rich man's concubine secures her daughter's future by killing herself, and where a woman can live on, knowing she has lost her entire life" (Washington Post).