MATTHIESSEN, Peter.
The Snow Leopard.
New York: Viking Press , 1978.
$1,800.00
Out of Stock
Item Number: RRB-4670
+$450
First Edition of The Snow Leopard; Inscribed by Peter Matthiessen to Writer Irwin Shaw
First edition of this classic work of modern nature writing. Octavo, original cloth. Inscribed by the author on the half title page to the writer Irwin Shaw and his wife, "For Irwin + Marian with love Peter August 1978." Additionally signed in full by Matthiessen opposite the half title page. Irwin Shaw was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story writer whose works have sold more than 14 million copies. Matthiessen and Irwin and Marian Shaw were friends while living as expatriates in Paris., where Matthiessen co-founded the Paris Review. Shaw is best known for two of his novels: The Young Lions, made into a film of the same name starring Marlon Brando, and Rich Man, Poor Man. Fine in a very good price-clipped dust jacket with a small chip to the front panel. A nice association copy.
In the autumn of 1973, the writer Peter Matthiessen set out in the company of zoologist George Schaller on a hike that would take them 250 miles into the heart of the Himalayan region of Dolpo, "the last enclave of pure Tibetan culture on earth." Their voyage was in quest of one of the world's most elusive big cats, the snow leopard of high Asia, a creature so rarely spotted as to be nearly mythical; Schaller was one of only two Westerners known to have seen a snow leopard in the wild since 1950. Published in 1978, The Snow Leopard is rightly regarded as a classic of modern nature writing. Guiding his readers through steep-walled canyons and over tall mountains, Matthiessen offers a narrative that is shot through with metaphor and mysticism, and his arduous search for the snow leopard becomes a vehicle for reflections on all manner of matters of life and death. In the process, The Snow Leopard evolves from an already exquisite book of natural history and travel into a grand, Buddhist-tinged parable of our search for meaning. By the end of their expedition, having seen wolves, foxes, rare mountain sheep, and other denizens of the Himalayas, and having seen many signs of the snow leopard but not the cat itself, Schaller muses, "We've seen so much, maybe it's better if there are some things that we don't see."
The Snow Leopard.
$1,800.00
Out of Stock
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