lemuria books (1 risultati)

Large bookmark card with text printed on one side only; approx. H 19.75cm x L 7.5cm. Pale yellow card with green text; top edge toned with stray slender 4.5cm ink line descending from top right corner. Cites six book signing events during November and early December 1991 for authors Betty Weiner, Ethan Canin, Philip Caputo (signing copies of MEANS OF ESCAPE), Marilyn Schwartz, Beth Henley and Lynn Green Root (signing copies of THE DEBUTANTE BALL), and concluding with John Grisham (signing copies of THE FIRM and A TIME TO KILL on December 6th). As Doubleday did not issue their reprint of A TIME TO KILL until 1993, this card is for one of the still fairly early meet and greet Grisham signing events where presumably one could still purchase a copy of the original 1989 Wynwood Press first edition of Grisham's first novel. Wynwood printed 5000 copies of A TIME TO KILL and Grisham, thinking that he could easy sell copies himself, purchased 1000 copies which he stored in his car trunk and law office. As the legend goes, the bookselling gig was not easy. For months Grisham hawked copies at Friends of the Library meetings all over central and north Mississippi including West Point, Starkville, Tupelo, Hernando, Calhoun City as well as other locales where he mostly received rather tepid responses and little encouragement. Grisham's West Point book reading-signing supposedly netted seven copies sold according to one witness of the event. Upon the success of THE FIRM and later THE PELICAN BRIEF, Grisham found huge crowds awaiting him for events at the three independent bookstores in the state which aided him in his early sales: Lemuria in Jackson, Square Books in Oxford, and Reed's Gum Tree Bookstore in Tupelo. Grisham still frequently peppers his speaking engagements with stories from his multi-month Mississippi book tour. A good copy of a trade card bookmark and an interesting ephemera item for a fun facet of Grisham's early writing career. {Please note that this card is not signed by any of the aforementioned authors.} The Grisham affiliation aside, the card is also notable for its citation of playwright Elizabeth Becker Henley, better known as Beth Henley, who won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her 1978 play CRIMES OF THE HEART.