Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

MAGUIRE, Gregory.

Item Number: 147024

New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 1995.

First edition of Gregory Maguire’s immensely popular reinvention of Oz. Octavo, original illustrated boards, cartographic endpapers. Lengthily signed by the author with a large drawing on the half-title page, “best wishes from Gregory Maguire” and additionally inscribed by composer Stephen Schwartz on the half-title page, “To Adrienne, Defy gravity! Stephen Schwartz.” Schwartz is a musical theatre composer and lyricist. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Wicked, Godspell and Pippin.  Fine in a fine dust jacket. Illustrations by Douglas Smith. Jacket design by Joel Avirom. A unique example.

Following the traditions of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, John Gardner and J.R.R. Tolkien, Wicked is a richly woven tale that takes us to the other, darker side of the rainbow as novelist Gregory Maguire chronicles the Wicked Witch of the West's odyssey through the complex world of Oz -- where people call you wicked if you tell the truth.