Motion Of Light In Water, The – Samuel R. Delany
NF 1st Print Paperback

For sale is a rare and exceptional first edition, first printing paperback copy of The Motion Of Light In Water: Sex And Science Fiction Writing In The East Village by Samuel R. Delany. First Plume Edition described, March 1989 Plume Books. First printing with a full number line reversed, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.

The exterior of this paperback edition is in Near Fine condition, with clean, illustrated covers with two corner creases, clean page blocks, mild surface wear, strong title on an un-cracked spine, a tight binding with no spine cracks, lightly rubbed spine ends, mild edge wear and lightly rounded corners. The interior of the book is also in Near Fine condition with the ghost of an erased price on the first free end paper. No other marks, inscriptions, or other signs of ownership inside. The end papers and the interior pages are clean and bright, making it an excellent addition to any collection.

Winner of the Hugo Award for Non-fiction
The unexpurgated edition of the award-winning autobiography

Born in New York City’s black ghetto Harlem at the start of World War II, Samuel R. Delany married white poet Marilyn Hacker right out of high school. The interracial couple moved into the city’s new bohemian quarter, the Lower East Side, in summer 1961. Through the decade’s opening years, new art, new sexual practices, new music, and new political awareness burgeoned among the crowded streets and cheap railroad apartments. Beautifully, vividly, insightfully, Delany calls up this era of exploration and adventure as he details his development as a black gay writer in an open marriage, with tertiary walk-ons by Bob Dylan, Stokely Carmichael, W. H. Auden, and James Baldwin, and a panoply of brilliantly drawn secondary characters.

Large volume ships promptly in a manila envelope with book wrapped in both craft paper and multiple layers of bubble wrap.