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WILD SEED
by Butler, Octavia E
- Used
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Very good plus in a very good jacket.
- ISBN 10
- 0385151608
- ISBN 13
- 9780385151603
- Seller
-
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1980. First edition. Very good plus in a very good jacket.. Signed first printing of the fourth book in the Patternist series - inscribed to the owner of an important Black bookstore. Taking place chronologically first in the epic storyline that first helped make Butler's reputation, this story of two African immortals explores themes of power through patriarchy/matriarchy, racism and eugenics, and utopias/dystopias. Ruth Salvaggio calls the protagonist of WILD SEED, Anyanwu, "the inspiring force for all of Butler's heroines." Publishing at a time when most of the best known science-fiction writers were white men (with a number of important exceptions that demonstrate the rule), Butler consciously brought her Own Voices experience to her books as a African-American woman: WILD SEED is both a tremendous work and a powerful model that continues to influence countless writers after her. This copy inscribed to Yvette La Roy, owner of Liberty House, a Harlem bookshop in operation between 1968 and 1979. A nice association. 8.25'' x 5.25''. Original glazed red paper boards, spine lettered in white. In original unclipped ($10.00) light green pictorial dust jacket with illustration by John Cayea and typography by Dennis McClellan. Fore-edge machine deckle. [8], 248 pages. Inscribed by Butler on the title page: "To Yvette / Best wishes / Octavia Butler." Some toning, rubbing, and edgewear to extremities of jacket. Some staining to verso at spine. Book with some soil to top edge. Else sound.
Synopsis
Wild Seed is the first book chronologically in the Patternist series, although it is the fourth published. The story centers around the main characters of Doro and Anyanwu, two immortals living in Africa. Doro is a spirit who can inhabit other people's bodies but kills them recklessly. He is breeding a race of superhumans, along with his son Issac. Anyanwu is a shapeshifting healer and one of the only beings Doro can't sense when she changes into an animal. Doro is compelled and threatened by her power, but she becomes repulsed by his callous murders. If they can work together, they have the true power to change the world. Butler's novel explores eugenics, the ethics of controlled evolution, and the creation of a black superrace through the same means colonists and enslavers used to promote white supremacy. Butler also portrayed a strong black female protagonist when they were nearly nonexistent in American literature.
Read More: Identifying first editions of WILD SEED
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Details
- Bookseller
- Type Punch Matrix
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 51019
- Title
- WILD SEED
- Author
- Butler, Octavia E
- Book Condition
- Used - Very good plus in a very good jacket.
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0385151608
- ISBN 13
- 9780385151603
- Publisher
- Doubleday & Company, Inc
- Place of Publication
- Garden City, New York
- Date Published
- 1980
- Keywords
- 20th century,American,Science Fiction,Woman Author,African American author,African American subject
Terms of Sale
Type Punch Matrix
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About the Seller
Type Punch Matrix
Biblio member since 2020
Silver Spring, Maryland
About Type Punch Matrix
Type Punch Matrix is a rare book firm founded by Rebecca Romney and Brian Cassidy. TPM is a member firm of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and upholds their Code of Ethics.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Inscribed
- When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
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