Nickel Mountain; A Pastoral Novel / With Etchings by Thomas O'Donohue

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973. First Edition. Cloth. Near Fine/Fine. SIGNED by the Author on the free front endpaper, 8vo, beige cloth with gold lettering on spine & embossed cover, Mylar-protected pictorial dust jacket (unclipped) with etching by Thomas O'Donohue & 9 more in-text full page sepia illustrations, 312 numbered & deckled pages + [313-14] sepia-toned illustration by O'Donohue + [315-16] + [2] A Note on Type. John Gardner (1933 - 1982) was an American novelist, essayist, literary critic and university professor. He is best known for his 1971 novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth from the monster's point of view. A tour de force! Gardner's other highly respected novels include The Sunlight Dialogues, about a disaffected policeman asked to engage a madman fluent in classical mythology; Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf legend from the monster's point of view, with an existential subtext; and October Light, about an embittered brother and sister living and feuding with each other in rural Vermont (the novel includes an invented "trashy novel" the woman reads). This last book won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1976. Nickel Mountain is his Gothic novel about backcountry folks from the Catskill Mountains of New York State. Set during the mid-1950's, they struggle through ordeals of despair and religious doubt. Middle-aged Henry Soames, who is overweight and suffering from heart trouble, runs a diner where locals gather. After teenage Callie Wells begins working there, she becomes pregnant by a boy she had trusted--but who abandons her. She and Henry come to one another's aide and decide to marry. Unfortunately, after her son is born, their relationship becomes strained on several levels... Dread pervades the gloomy mountain and characters. A dark lesson seems to be that despite one's protectiveness for loved ones, ultimately, we can't protect them. People destroy one other without meaning to. It's a lesson from the author's youth, when he felt protracted guilt for his brother's accidental death on a farm. Even so, suggestions of Redemption slowly emerge from this wild heart of the Catskills. Gardner was killed in a motorcycle accident on September 14, 1982. SUPERIOR COPY: clean, tight, bright in a spotless dust jacket. The book has two small defects: the free front endpaper has its upper right corner clipped; there is a small red remainder stamp on the bottom of the pages.