THIRTEEN STORIES AND THIRTEEN EPITAPHS [Signed]

New York, New York: Pantheon Books, 1991. First U.S. Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Octavo, 318 pages. In Very Good minus condition with Very Good condition dust jacket. Spine is black with white lettering. Dust jacket protected by mylar covering, price uncut: "$24.00" on front flap, and has mild shelving wear along head edges. Boards have mild shelving wear along extremities. Text block edges moderately foxed (half-title and title pages mildly affected). Signed flat on title page by William T. Vollman. DL Consignment. Shelved Room C. William T. Vollman has been accused of being many dangerous things: an Islamic extremist, the Unabomber, and the Anthrax killer, to name a few. In truth, the author is none of those things; he is something arguably scarier: an American citizen. After receiving an anonymous tip, the FBI began to investigate the anti-progress and anti-imperial narratives in Vollman's work. To them, the romanticism of his writing did not pair well with the author's reticence towards technology in his personal life. Vollman struck the FBI as unAmerican and, though he was later cleared, would spend the whole life defending his patriotism. Ironically, Vollman writes for the same purpose that inspired the revolution: freedom. In this way, Vollman is perhaps amongst the most American of living writers in the literary canon, his desperate and haunted characters vying for the invisible thing that might set them free. THIRTEEN STORIES AND THIRTEEN EPITAPHS is an early example of these threads of disillusionment that are paradoxically so American and yet, permanently altered the course of Vollman's life. 1396083. Special Collections.