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SAUL BELLOW — NOBEL LECTURESigned Limited Edition of 350 | Targ Editions No. 4 | Oliphant Press, 1979
BELLOW, Saul. Nobel Lecture.
New York: Targ Editions, 1979.
First edition in book form in this signed limited format.
Number Four in the Targ Editions series.
One of only 350 numbered copies, each signed by Saul Bellow on the limitation page.
Designed and printed by Ronald Gordon at the Oliphant Press.
20 pages. Tall format, approximately 10 × 6½ inches.
A handsome signed limited edition of Saul Bellow’s Nobel Prize lecture, published three years after he received the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Compact, elegantly produced, and signed by the author, the book is one of the most appealing direct associations between Bellow and the defining public honor of his career.
Signed by Saul Bellow
This copy is signed by:
Saul Bellow
on the original limitation page.
The edition was restricted to only 350 numbered copies, all signed by the author.
This copy is number 11 of 350.
The signature is bold and clear.
Unlike detached autograph leaves sometimes encountered in the market, the present signature remains in its original context as part of the complete signed book.
Saul Bellow and the Nobel Prize
Saul Bellow was awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, one of the defining honors of his career.
He delivered his Nobel lecture on December 12, 1976.
The lecture is one of Bellow’s most concentrated statements on:
- literature;
- modern culture;
- the artist and society;
- imagination;
- the responsibility of the writer;
- the pressures of contemporary life.
The present edition appeared in 1979, transforming the lecture into a carefully produced signed private-press book.
For collectors, it offers an unusually direct combination:
- a Nobel Prize text;
- a Nobel laureate’s autograph;
- a numbered limitation;
- distinguished private-press production.
Number Four of the Targ Editions
This volume was issued as:
Number Four in the Targ Editions series
The Targ Editions were a distinguished sequence of signed limited publications by major contemporary writers.
The archive of the series is preserved at New York University’s Fales Library.
Each Targ Edition was signed by its author and issued in a small edition of between only 150 and 350 copies.
The series included works by writers such as:
- John Updike;
- Ray Bradbury;
- Saul Bellow;
- Kate Millett;
- Richard Brautigan;
- Chester Himes.
Bellow’s Nobel Lecture was the fourth publication in the series.
This is an important distinction:
“Number Four” identifies its place in the Targ Editions series; the individual book is separately numbered within the edition of 350 copies.
Designed and Printed at the Oliphant Press
The volume was designed and printed by:
Ronald Gordon at the Oliphant Press
The production reflects the bibliophilic character of the Targ Editions: restrained typography, generous proportions, quality materials, and a deliberately small signed limitation.
This is therefore more than a commercial reprint of Bellow’s Nobel address.
It is a carefully produced fine-press presentation of the text.
A Collectible Bellow Association
Bellow’s major novels—including The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, Humboldt’s Gift, and Seize the Day—form the center of most serious collections of his work.
Nobel Lecture occupies a different but particularly attractive place in his bibliography.
It directly unites:
- Bellow’s literary thought;
- his Nobel Prize;
- his autograph;
- the Targ Editions series;
- American private-press printing.
The edition of only 350 copies is substantially smaller than the commercial printings of his major books.
Bibliographic Details
Author: Saul Bellow
Title: Nobel Lecture
Publisher: Targ Editions
Place: New York
Date: 1979
Edition: First signed limited edition
Series: Number Four of the Targ Editions
Limitation: One of 350 numbered copies
Signed: Signed by Saul Bellow on the limitation page
Copy Number:11
Designer / Printer: Ronald Gordon
Press: Oliphant Press
Pagination: 20 pages
Size: Approximately 10 × 6½ inches
Language: English
Condition
Near Fine.
Boards remain clean, sharp, and well preserved.
Binding tight and sound.
Interior fresh, clean, and unmarked.
Saul Bellow’s signature on the limitation page is bold and clear.
If jacket is absent:
The book was originally issued with a plain, fragile unprinted glassine dust jacket; that jacket is not present.
Collector’s Note
A handsome signed limited edition connecting one of the major American novelists of the twentieth century directly with the highest literary honor of his career.
Of particular interest to collectors of:
- Saul Bellow;
- Nobel Prize literature;
- signed modern first editions;
- Targ Editions;
- Oliphant Press;
- American private press books;
- twentieth-century American literature.
A finely produced and genuinely limited Bellow item: one of only 350 numbered copies, signed by the Nobel laureate and issued as Number Four of the Targ Editions series.
