Inscribed first printing of this profile of "the greatest [basketball] player in the history of the Ivy League" (jacket) – who would later become a US Senator – John McPhee's first book.
Near fine in very good dust jacket.
Price: $1,000.00
"There's a freshman basketball player down here who is the best basketball player who has ever been near here and may be one of the best ever. You ought to come down and see him."
John McPhee is trailblazer in the creative nonfiction genre. A SENSE OF WHERE YOU ARE covers a topic with which he was intimately familiar: as the son of the physician of Princeton's athletic department and later a Princeton student himself, McPhee understood the importance of Bill Warren Bradley's skill on the basketball court. McPhee profiled Bradley for THE NEW YORKER following Bradley's Gold Medal-winning performance on the 1964 US Olympic basketball team, where he got a sense of his potential and record-breaking talent. A SENSE OF WHERE YOU ARE follows Bradley's storied senior year as he led Princeton to take an unprecedented third place in the NCAA championship, all the while excelling academically, for which he was named a Rhodes Scholar. McPhee would go on to be nominated for the Pulitzer Prize four times, eventually winning the honor in 1999; and Warren found success both in the NBA and as a Democratic politician.
First edition. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, (1965). 7.5'' x 5.5''. Original black cloth boards with gilt spine lettering. Original unclipped ($3.75) pictorial dust jacket. 24 pages of black-and-white plates. 146 pages. Inscribed by McPhee to title page, dated "December 16, 1965." Jacket with some sunning to spine, light edgewear with a bit of loss to top of spine;.75" thin chip to rear. Binding with a touch of sunning to spine ends. Clean and tight.
We work hard to meet our ethical responsibility to describe our material accurately. All items are guaranteed as described and may be returned for any reason within 30 days. Please notify us before mailing a return.
We guarantee the authenticity of our items. All materials are original (meaning not facsimiles or reproductions) unless otherwise noted. First editions (meaning first edition, first printing) are explicitly stated. TPM is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and upholds their Code of Ethics.
All photographs are of the actual item for sale. We're happy to provide additional images on request.
All domestic orders ship gratis. For orders under $250, free USPS media mail shipping is included; orders $250 and over ship USPS Priority. International orders over $500 also ship gratis. Expedited, overnight, as well as other carriers (UPS, Fed-Ex, etc.), may carry additional costs beyond quoted rates. All orders receive tracking information and a direct contact in case of any questions.
International buyers are responsible for any customs, taxes, and related import fees. Please note that we are unable to accomodate requests to misrepresent, misdeclare, or otherwise falsify customs documents when shipping internationally. We appreciate your understanding.
We accept all major credit cards, Paypal, Venmo, check, money order, and bank wire. We are happy to bill institutional buyers' needs. Sales tax will be added to applicable purchases. Items subject to prior sale.
If for any reason you are dissatisfied with your purchase, please contact us. We prioritize our long-term relationships far above any individual purchase, and we want you to love your item as much as we loved cataloguing it.
Type Punch Matrix is a Washington D.C.-area rare book firm founded by Rebecca Romney and Brian Cassidy.
Read more about TPM.
