Sounder Few: Essays from the Hollins Critic [signed] [first edition]

First edition hardcover, a collection of seventeen essays from The Hollins Critic, which the editors describe as "the only critical journal in the country which is devoted to a full-length essay review of a recent work by a living author," based at Hollins College (now Hollins University) in Roanoke, VA. The contributions include essays on Robert Lowell, William Styron, John Barth, and many others from the likes of Daniel Hoffman, Walter Sullivan, and Julia Randall. R. H. W. Dillard, one of the editors of the Critic and of this anthology, contributes two pieces on Nabokov and Colin Wilson, and the brilliance of this copy is that it belonged to Annie Dillard, with her ownership signature on the tangerine front free endpaper. She has drawn lines on the front jacket flap to mark her husbands contributions listed there. Annie Doak married her professor Richard Dillard in 1965 at the age of 20, and after earning her Masters from Hollins in '68, spent several years painting, writing, and keeping the journal that would turn into Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. The Dillards divorced amicably in 1975, the year after Pilgrim appearedthe year it won the Pulitzer. Thus they were still married when The Sounder Few was published. Perhaps it was jettisoned by Annie Dillard after their divorce. Most books seen from her library include an ex-libris red-and-white bookplate since they were recently sold at auction, but this one doesnt have one, suggesting it didnt make it that far. Here is a book that gets to the heart of the literary scene that Annie Dillard discovered at Hollins and then left behindher husband includedfor a larger stage. It is also a book that she had on hand while Pilgrim was in incubation. The book is in very good condition, with a very good dust jacket with a few chips and short tears around the spine. The spine is severely sun faded, which seems to be not unusual for this book. Please inquire for photos.