signed first edition
1990 · London
by Rushdie, Salman
London: Granta Books, 1990. First printing. Fine.. Special signed limited edition of Rushdie's allegorical children's fantasy, full of allusions to Lewis Carroll, the Thousand and One Nights, and the author's persecution following publication of THE SATANIC VERSES. HAROUN, published the year after Khomeini's fatwa against Rushdie was issued, revolves around the importance of freedom of speech and storytelling, with many barely-disguised parallels to contemporary censorship and religious repression. On the subject of stories, life, and the capacity of the artist to turn one into the other, Rushdie's Walrus observes: "Happy endings are much rarer in stories, and also in life, than most people think." Furthermore, happy endings are endings: "'If they happen in the middle of a story, or an adventure, or the like, all they do is cheer things up for a while.' 'That'll do,' said Haroun." 8.5'' x 5.5''. Original brown quarter leather with marbled boards. Cerulean endpapers. Edition of 251 numbered copies bound in calfskin leather, published simultaneously with the first trade edition. This copy no. 79, signed by Rushdie below limitation statement. 218 pages. Trace shelfwear to spine ends.
(Inventory #: 52626)