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Doctorow, E. L : Billy Bathgate: The Limited Edition

Random House, New York City, NY, 1989

ISBN 039457513X

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 323 pages. The author's seventh novel. One of E. L. Doctorow's finest achievements. Limited Slipcased Edition of 300 numbered and signed copies. Should not be confused with the much more common Franklin Mint and the regular trade edition. The Limited Edition is now scarce. An austerely elegant production by Random House: Regular-sized volume format. Blue cloth boards with gilt titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Text by E. L. Doctorow. Matching blue hard board slipcase. Protective plastic sleeve. Printed on archival stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents, in its Random House Limited Edition format, E. L. Doctorow's "Billy Bathgate". The story of Arthur Flegenheimer, the man better-known to the world as Dutch Schultz. "Told from the enamored point-of-view of his eponymous fifteen-year-old protege. E. L. Doctorow explores the relationship between the older "role model" and his impressionable, ambitious, and murderous young thug, adding his own singular twist to the ancient paradigm of Master and Disciple, with fame and fortune side-by-side with danger and death, themes that nearly every major work in the Western canon has touched upon. Doctorow has introduced more formal innovations to the historical novel than any other American novelist of our time. His work has influenced a whole generation of writers, but his limpid style is entirely his own. The basis of the fine and underrated film adaptation by Brian de Palma, with Dustin Hoffmann, Loren Dean (as Billy Bathgate), and a very young Nicole Kidman (as his girlfriend). "History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth. So to be irreverent to myth, to play with it, let in some light and air, to try to combust it back into history, is to risk being seen as someone who distorts truth" (E. L. Doctorow). E. L. Doctorow died on July 21, 2015 at the age of 84, an irreplaceable loss. An absolute "must-have" title for E. L. Doctorow collectors. This copy is one of the Limited Slipcased Edition, indicated/numbered as such on the Front Limitation Page, and it is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen by E. L. Doctorow. This title is a late-modern classic. This is one of few copies of the Limited Slipcased Edition still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Because it is numbered and elegantly produced, this Limited Edition is more collectible than the un-numbered (and gaudy) Franklin Mint edition. Yet, inexplicably, the latter is typically priced more than the former. A rare signed copy thus. Winner of the very first National Book Critics Circle Award in 1976 for "Ragtime". Winner of the National Book Award in 1986 for "World's Fair". Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Winner of the PEN/Faulkner, and a second National Book Critics Circle Award in 2006 for "The March". One of the greatest American writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER E. L. DOCTOROW TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 039457513X.

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