The Source [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Michener, James A.

Edité par Random House, New York, 1965

A propos de cet article

Fine condition turquoise cloth boards, navy blue front cover and spine decoration, gold front cover illustration and gold spine lettering contained in a very good condition price-clipped color illustrated dust jacket. Includes List of Other Books by James A. Michener; Acknowledgments; and Preliminary Page Author Note. Illustrated with a section of maps and front and rear color illustrated map endpapers. A small neatly scripted former owner signature on the inner front board. Small closed tear and chips at upper and lower dustjacket spine and edges. All pages are in fine unmarked condition and the spine/binding is exceedingly tight and square (see photographs). "The focal point of this magnificent novel is Makor, a site in Israel known in modern times as Tell Makor - a name signifying that this is not a natural mound "but the patiently accumulated residue of one abandoned settlement after another, each resting upon the ruins of its predecessor, reaching endlessly back into history." The framework for the narrative is provided by the archaeologists who come to excavate Makor, uncovering objects whiich identify, level by level, the various periods of human occupancy that have come and gone since the first men arrived here. The expedition is fascinating in itself, but the main body of the novel is the story of Makor, in its various aspects through the ages. The archaeologists can only date and classify and make expert generalizations about most of the artifacts they dig up, but Mr. Michener, exercising the pregogative of a master storyteller, is not thus limited. By presenting believable characters in dramatic situations that are true to the times that produced them, he vividly re-creates the life in and around Makor in crucial periods of its existence, from twelve thousand years ago, through the coming and going of many conquerors - Canaanite, Hebrew, Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Crusader, Mameluke. Turkish and British - down to the heroic days when the modern state of Israel was established. Makor, like its inhabitants, is fictional, but it is founded solidly on historical research and facts established by the exploration of many actual sites in Israel. What happened at Makor is the history of the Holy Land itself, and what happened in the Holy Land is intimately bound up with the development of western civilization. Here was the source of the great religious ideas that have shaped our thought, and here every great empire that has dominated the west has left its mark. Thus The Source is the story of our universal heritage from the past - a story not only of human greed, bigotry and cruelty, but of human striving for law and justice, love and faith. It is a book to ponder as well as to enjoy; it should and will be widely read in many languages by people of many creeds." - from the inner front and rear jacket flaps. N° de réf. du vendeur 007483

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : The Source [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Éditeur : Random House, New York

Date d'édition : 1965

Reliure : Hardcover

Illustrateur : Loprete, Tere (book design); Tremblay, Jean-Paul (maps and diagrams); Fleming, Guy (jacket design)

Etat : Fine

Etat de la jaquette : Very Good

Edition : 1st Edition