Signed Copies
Signed copies of books are a personal touch that remind the reader of the real human being behind the book. The signature (and possibly a little inscription if we are lucky) represents the hundreds of hours and miles of actual and imagined travel that the writer journeyed to make the vision real, the experience real, and the book real. Signed copies are always by their nature in limited supply, but we promise to keep this page constantly changing with these rare treasures.
Hunting Buffalo with Bent Nails [Signed and Numbered]
Hunting Buffalo with Bent Nails [Signed and Numbered]
Acclaimed worldwide for his extraordinary crime novels, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block is also a beloved author of nonfiction. In this brand new collection—his first in 5 years—Block demonstrates why, illustrating how a master storyteller can hold an audience spellbound on any topic at all.
Whether recounting his exotic travels (“After two weeks of long rides and low rations, we left our wretched Jeeps and mounted Bactrian camels, striking out across the sand in search of a lost city”) or expressing his love for his adopted hometown (“I was ten and a half when I fell in love with New York”), whether penning an in-depth appreciation of the work of his friend and fellow Grand Master Donald E. Westlake or an account of his tour of a modeling-clay factory in Indiana—or his brief stay in a Mexican jail—Block proves himself once again to be one of our wittiest and most engaging raconteurs. Fans of his seven books on the craft of writing will appreciate his insights on the subject (“Writing is magic, and I say this not boastfully but in wonder. I’m not the magician, waving his wand, pulling a rabbit out of a hat. I’m not sure what I am. The wand, maybe. Or the rabbit, or even the hat.”). And what reader could resist a guided tour of Manhattan’s eccentricities? (“My favorite intersection is that of Waverly Place and Waverly Place. That street, the most resolutely pious in New York, insists upon crossing itself.”)
No one writes like Lawrence Block. If you only know him from his crime stories, you owe it to yourself to discover his many other sides. And if you do already know about his wide-ranging and colorful interests and his unforgettable way of sharing them, well, then—you know just what a wonderful treat Hunting Buffalo with Bent Nails has in store for you.
Limited: 500 signed numbered hardcover copies
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Abridge This!
All My Best Eyes Are Private
Alone Too Long
Apocalypse in a Small Town
Back in the Day with DVR
The Ballad of the Pound
The Bumpy Road to Inspiration
Cheers for the Much-Maligned Motel
Collecting Old Subway Cars
Donald E. Westlake
East Side, West Side
Follow the Serendipity Road
Gangsters, Swindlers, Killers and Thieves
Getting Busted
Greenwich Village Through the Years
Ham for Breakfast
How to Be a Writer Without Writing Anything
How We’ve Changed
Hunting Buffalo
Introducing Manhattan: a Dark Duet
Listowel, a Special Place
The Magic of Minneapolis
The Mean Streets of Gotham
No Slings, No Arrows
A Pen Name? Really? After All These Years???
A Rare and Radiant Mother
Raymond Chandler and the Brasher Doubloon
Travel by Number
The Whole World Is Listening
Writing My Name