Faber Books – Part 3 – Garrison Keillor, Mario Vargas Llosa, Sylvia Plath, Wilma Stockenstrom, Charles Williams

The last of the Faber books. From here I will move on to general fiction in a variety of editions.

First though, Garrison Keillor of whom I have two books, Lake Woebegone Days and Radio Romance. Keillor is of course well known as a humorist and broadcaster of Prairie Home Companion.  He also released the charming and funny Songs of the Cat, a must buy for cat lovers.

Below are the books, cover illustrations by Pierre Le Tan

Mario Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer. I think when I acquired his War of the End of the World I was very taken with South American literature. These days I can’t even recall whether I actually finished the novel. Anyway, here’s the cover.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath was also published by Faber and was something of a bestseller back in the 1970s. Must read it again sometime.

I can’t say I know anything about Wilma Stockenstrom or her book The Expedition to the Baobab Tree, which I find in my collection, but apparently she is an Afrikaans poet and novelist. Ah the wonders of the Internet…

And finally, Charles Williams, who was one of the Inklings along with J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis. His novels are quite distinct from theirs being of a contemporary nature and are classified as supernatural thrillers. They are somewhat weird and most unusual, often featuring demonic possession being overcome by angelic intervention.

Here are three Faber editions of his books. I have others in diverse editions elsewhere.

Next – a diverse range of large size fiction paperbacks (with a few hard covers)

Modern Firsts – Part 2 – South American and other foreign writers

My book collection is quite eclectic as you no doubt have realised by now. Below are more first edition hard covers from a variety of writers.

Quite few of them were given to me as gifts and others I purchased at the time they were published or I found them on the remaindered books table of a discount bookstore.

Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende I remember purchasing after a successful gamble on a race horse. A long shot winner gained me a windfall of $100.00. I celebrated by buying this book- her third novel published in 1985. I also have somewhere a proof copy of Stories of Eva Luna.

Keeping to South American authors The General in his Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez I acquired as a Christmas present in 1990. That year I had to perform the function of present buyer for my mother who was unwell so bought the book for myself as a present from her.

I acquired The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa sometime or other from my friend in the book trade who was at that time the Australian representative for Faber and gave me many interesting books, in hard cover, paperback or proof copy. I can’t remember if I ever read The Storyteller, but it certainly has a great cover.

Other books from this source are the wonderful The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, News From a Foreign Country Came by Alberto Manguel, Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi