Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen.

First edition of the author's immensely moving memoir. Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page in the year of publication, "Dear Helene & Bill here is six of my nine lives - and you are amongst the few who knows the other three as well. With friendship and Warm regards from George March 5/1998." Additionally signed three times by legendary designer Chip Kidd, on the half-title page, the front panel and the rear jacket flap. The recipient, William Safire was an important American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter and a close friend of the then Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin. Safire joined Nixon’s campaign for the 1960 Presidential race, and again in 1968. After Nixon’s 1968 victory, Safire served as a speechwriter for him and Spiro Agnew. He authored several political columns in addition to his weekly column “On Language” in The New York Times Magazine from 1979 until the month of his death and authored two books on grammar and linguistics: The New Language of Politics (1968) and what Zimmer called Safire’s “magnum opus,” Safire’s Political Dictionary. Safire later served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1995 to 2004 and in 2006 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Chip Kidd.