A Piece of My Heart.

First English edition of Ford's first novel. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper in the year of publication, "Richard Ford July 2. 1987 London." From the collection of British photojournalist Sally Soames. 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. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket painting by William Harnett. Jacket photograph by Sally Soames.