The Trick Of It.

FRAYN, Michael.

$125.00

Item Number: 119338

London: Viking, 1989.

First edition of of Frayn’s reverential novel. Octavo, original boards. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, “For Sally with best wishes from Michael Frayn 15 August 1989.” 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 near fine dust jacket. Jacket illustrations by David Hughes.

Frayn's The Trick of It is a comic and painful voyage of exploration into the creative process and the feelings it arouses in others. The humble academic disciple finds himself admitted to his subject's life, and off to his oldest friend go a series of dispatches - by turns awed and patronizing, reverential and jealous, disingenuous and appallingly frank.