Happiness! Happiness! Happiness!

[Jane Grant]

My funny-funny sister who's too much like the Lara Flynn Boyle character in that creepy-creepy movie Happiness for her own good, mine, or yours sent me these excerpts from a book dealer's catalogue and asked me which number I'd like for X-mas. I told her I wanted #273! She told me to expect another LL Bean sweater. I thought I'd pass them on for kicks 'n giggles because the prices are so outrageous. It may help you with your X-mas shopping if you can't find that perfect gift for the guy who's got it all except for that penis warmer he's always wanted, the complete works of Thomas Vu, Tony Robbins, and Dale Carnegie, and, of course, that enigmatic variant folio of Mason & Dixon last seen in the possession of a certain Romain Gary before Genghis Cohn killed him and made it look like Jean Seberg did it because she didn't like the trampoline scenes in Kill! Kill! Kill! I thought they were pretty cool myself!

Jane

Psss. Issss Thomas Pynchon really this good??   


272. PYNCHON, Thomas. Mortality and Mercy in Vienna. (London): (Aloes) (n.d.). (c.1976). A piracy, and
the first separate appearance of a story that first appeared in Epoch. The Mead bibliography lists four states and
a second printing: this copy corresponds to none of those, having neither the crosses of the four states nor a
publication date as implied in the description of the second printing; the cover illustration is entirely brown. Near
fine in stapled wrappers. $75 

273. PYNCHON, Thomas. Vineland. Boston: Little Brown (1990). Unbound signatures of his first novel in
seventeen years. Pynchon reportedly requested that there be no bound proofs prepared for this novel, making this
the earliest known printed version of the book. Reportedly there were only eight sets of signatures pulled from the
print run for this advance issue. Pages uncut; fine, in an attractive custom folding chemise and quarter morocco
slipcase. $2000 

274. PYNCHON, Thomas. Mason and Dixon. NY: Henry Holt (1997). The advance reading copy of his latest
novel, published to extraordinary critical reviews, with more than one reviewer calling it his best book. The trade
edition had an announced 200,000 copy first printing; we are told that the number of copies of each advance issue
was 500. There are two variant issues, with differences only on the rear wrapper: this is the one with the rear
panel featuring publication and promotional data, which was reportedly sent to booksellers; the other was said to
have been sent to reviewers, and has a brief synopsis of the book's content on the rear panel. Both issues, we are
told, contain minor textual variations from the published book the first time that a Pynchon advance copy has been
textually significant, to the best of our knowledge. No priority determined. Fine. $250

275. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy, with significant textual variations from the above advance reading
copy as well as from the printed book. We have been told that virtually the entire edition of these proofs was
destroyed, and the quantity extant was, at one point, rumored to total nine copies. Fine in wrappers. The most
significant printed variant of any Pynchon work ever to appear the only one to contain a significantly earlier
version of the text than that which was finally published in book form. While the textual variations in the advance
reading copy listed above are minor, and could easily have been the work of a copy editor, those evident in this
proof would have to have involved Pynchon's assent and his rewriting. $3500 


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