Carver, Raymond | What We Talk About When We Talk About love, inscribed to Phyllis Barber

Carver, Raymond

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. New York: Knopf, 1981

8vo. Original cloth in dust jacket; fine but for minor fading to board edges.

First edition, inscribed with “best regards” by Carver to a young Phyllis Barber in 1982.

Carver’s What We Talk About… was the collection that brought him wide acclaim and contains some of his most enduring stories. At the time Carver signed this for her, Phyllis Barber was just beginning her own writing career, as a student at Brigham Young. She would go on to author numerous works centered on Mormonism, the American West and how women navigate within these unique worlds. Her 1991 How I Got Cultured was awarded the Associated Writing Program Award Series Prize in Creative Nonfiction, 1991. An interesting association, as Barber still counts Carver as an influence in her own work.

An established author inscribes for a young student of writing.

PROVENANCE:

Phyllis Barber (presentation inscription) — Christie's New York, 19 June 2007, lot 5 (undesignated consignor)