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1972-1973. The file begins with an in-house recommendation that Houghton Mifflin publish Taylor, as he has become "disenchanted" with Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, and follows with a page stating the terms of his pending contract. Taylor's direct contributions here include two typed letters signed; an undated preliminary author questionnaire (typed); and a later, longer (8 page) questionnaire, signed by the author and completed by hand. In the first letter, Taylor reacts with pleasure to the paucity of corrections needed in the proofs, and muses about his own proclivities with parentheses. The second letter transmits the longer author questionnaire as well as a press release from the University of Virginia that covers questions that he chose not to answer, while also directing that photos of him previously taken by Jill Krementz be used for the jacket. The questionnaire itself covers biographical information; teaching positions held; previous publications; towns and media outlets to which Taylor has a connection; and salient points about the book for advertising purposes. Here, he writes (in part): "I am a writer who has always regarded the short story as a dramatic form, closer to the play than to the novel..." Approximately a dozen other copies of letters and memos round out the file, including Krementz's invoice; copies of or transcriptions of blurbs by James Dickey and William Alfred; several pages with marketing information such as the initial print run and the list of authors receiving complimentary copies (a list that includes Joyce Carol Oates, Elizabeth Hardwick, Allen Tate, Lillian Hellman, Robert Penn Warren, etc.). Taylor won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel A Summons to Memphis and the PEN/Faulkner Award for his story collection, The Old Forest and Other Stories. The Library of America issued a two-volume collection of his complete short stories. The lot is near fine. [#036735] $3,000

NY, Knopf, 1993. One of 650 numbered advance reading copies of his last book, a collection of stories. Fine in wrappers, in very good publisher's cardstock slipcase. [#019356] $20