First Love, Last Rites

By Ian McEwan

First edition, first impression: London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1975. Signed by the author in black ink to the title page. Accompanied by the ticket for the event at which the book was signed: The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, Ian McEwan at the Christ Church Marquee, Sunday 5 April 2009.

Octavo. Original black cloth, the spine lettered in gilt with the Cape urn device at the foot. With the original pictorial dust jacket, design by Bill Botten, unclipped and priced £2.50 net to the lower rear flap.

Near fine: very faint traces of spotting to the edges and the front endpaper, the contents otherwise clean throughout.

The dust jacket near fine, with a soft crease to the lower flap.

McEwan's first book, a collection of eight stories, awarded the Somerset Maugham Award for 1976. The front flap records that he had received an Arts Council Award in 1973 and been nominated by Philip Roth for a writing fellowship. Two of the stories have since been filmed: the title story by Jesse Peretz in 1997, and "Solid Geometry" by Channel 4 in 2002, directed by Denis Lawson with Ewan McGregor, an earlier BBC production having been halted at a late stage in 1979. The two novels that followed, The Cement Garden and The Comfort of Strangers, earned him the nickname "Ian Macabre".