Rabbit, Run.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf,, 1960. Inscribed copy in the first issue jacket First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author to the influential New York publisher: "For Ralph Sylvester John Updike". Sylvester (1934-2018) co-founded the publishing house Sylvester & Orphanos with his partner, the notable literary photographer and book dealer Stathis Orphanos (1940-2018). The two published a signed limited edition of Updike's essay collection Impressions in 1985. Impressions contains 11 essays of Updike's art criticism, some of which had never before been published. The artists and topics Updike discusses in that volume include Vermeer, John Henry Fuseli, Adam and Eve, and childhood. Sylvester & Orphanos published 25 limited editions over a period of almost 30 years, beginning in 1976 with their friend Christopher Isherwood's Christopher and his Kind. In addition, Updike sat for Orphanos, later stating that Orphanos's striking photo portrait of him unveiled "the definitive personality [he] always lacked" (quoted in Catalog, p. 32). Published in the same year that Sylvester and Orphanos met, Rabbit, Run is the first novel in Updike's influential and critically acclaimed Rabbit series. This copy is in the first issue jacket with the 16-line blurb on the front flap. Two later titles in the series, Rabbit is Rich (1981) and Rabbit at Rest (1990), were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Updike one of only four authors to receive the prize multiple times. Octavo. Original green cloth-backed blue boards, spine lettered in silver and gilt, front cover lettered in silver, publisher's device blind-stamped on rear cover, top edge green. With dust jacket. Sunning to edges, mild offsetting to endpapers, not affecting inscription, contents clean. A near-fine copy in unclipped dust jacket, light sunning to spine, tiny chip at head, slight rubbing and nicks with couple of short closed tears, small splash mark on verso, panels bright, very good overall. Sylvester & Orphanos: Catalog of an Exhibit, October-December 1990.