Steve Martin "The Pleasure of My Company" Signed First Edition, Leather-Bound [Sealed]

Personally signed by Steve Martin, one of the most well-known talents in entertainment

Easton Press, Norwalk, CT. 2003. Steve Martin "The Pleasure of My Company" Signed First Edition. Hardcover leather-bound heirloom. Personally signed by the author on special dedication page. Beautiful leather with 22 kt gold patterns. Includes original collector's notes. Certificate of Authenticity from Easton Press guarantees the signature. New and sealed. 

Limited to only 1,350 signed and numbered copies.

From the bestselling author of Shopgirl comes the tender story of a troubled man who finds love, and life, in the most unexpected place.

Daniel resides in his Santa Monica apartment, living much of his life as a bystander: He watches from his window as the world goes by, and his only relationships seem to be with people who barely know he exists. He passes the time idly filling out contest applications, counting ceiling tiles, and estimating the wattage of light bulbs.

It is through Daniel's growing attachment to Clarissa, and to Teddy, that he finally gains the courage to begin to engage the world outside, and in doing so, he discovers love, and life, in the most surprising places.

Filled with his trademark humor, tenderness, and out and out hilarious wordplay, The Pleasure of My Company is a tour de force sure to delight all of Steve Martin's fans.

Features

Contains all the classic Easton Press qualities:

  * Premium Leather
  * Silk Moire Endleaves
  * Distinctive Cover Design
  * Hubbed Spine, Accented in Real 22KT Gold
  * Satin Ribbon Page Marker
  * Gilded Page Edges
  * Long-lasting, High Quality Acid-neutral Paper
  * Smyth-sewn Pages for Strength and Durability
  * Beautiful Illustrations

Book Description

Readers expecting something zany, something crudely humorous from Steve Martin's second novel, The Pleasure of My Company, will discover much greater riches. While the book has a sense of humor, Martin moves everywhere with a gentler, lighter touch in this elegant little fiction that verges on the profound and poetic. Daniel Pecan Cambridge is the narrator and central consciousness of the novel (actually a novella).

Daniel, an ex-Hewlett-Packard communiqu+ encoder, is a savant whose closely proscribed world is bounded on every side by neuroses and obsessions. He cannot cross the street except at driveways symmetrically opposed to each, and he cannot sleep unless the wattage of the active light bulbs in his apartment sums to 1,125. Daniel's starved social life is punctuated by twice-weekly visits from a young therapist in training, Clarissa; by his prescription pick-ups from a Rite Aid pharmacist, Zandy; and by his "casual" meetings with the bleach-blond real estate agent, Elizabeth, who is struggling to sell apartments across the street. But Daniel's dysfunctional routines are shattered one day when he becomes entangled in the chaos of Clarissa's life as a single mother. 

Taking care of Clarissa's tiny son, Teddy, Daniel begins to emerge from the safety of logic, magic squares, and obsessive counting. Martin's craftsmanship is remarkable. The tightly packed novella paints rich portraits with restraint and balance, including nothing extraneous to Daniel's world. The book does not try for pyrotechnics but is contented with a Zen-like simplicity in both prose and plot. Avoiding the crushing bleakness of much contemporary fiction, Martin insists through Daniel--a man haunted by horrors of his own making--that there is possibility for compassion, that broken lives can actually be healed.

About Steve Martin

Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award at the Academy's 5th Annual Governors Awards in 2013. Additionally, he was nominated for two Tony Awards for his musical Bright Star in 2016. Among many honors, he has received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center Honors, and an AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.

Martin came to public notice in the 1960s as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1969, and later as a frequent host on Saturday Night Live. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before sold-out theaters on national tours. Since the 1980s, having retired from stand-up comedy, Martin has become a successful actor, starring in such films as The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983), Three Amigos (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), L.A. Story (1991), Bowfinger (1999) and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). He has also starred in a series of family films portraying the family patriarch in Parenthood (1989), the Father of the Bride films (1991–1995), and the Cheaper by the Dozen films (2003–2005).

In 2015, Martin started touring nationally with fellow comedian Martin Short. In 2018, they released their Netflix special An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life for which they received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. In 2021, he co-created and starred in his first television show, the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building alongside Short and Selena Gomez where he earned three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award nomination.

Martin is also known for writing the book and lyrics to the musical Bright Star (2016) and the comedy Meteor Shower (2017), both of which premiered on Broadway. While he has played banjo since an early age, and included music in his comedy routines from the beginning of his professional career, he has increasingly dedicated his career to music since the 2000s, acting less and spending much of his professional life playing banjo, recording, and touring with various bluegrass acts, including Earl Scruggs, with whom he won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance in 2002. His first solo music album, The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo (2009) received the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.

Reviews

Kevin Sampsell, Denver Post
"Martin's writing shows enormous depth and grace."

New York Times Book Review
"Moments of hilarity, and Martin's gift for comedic metaphor is uniquely his own."

Entertainment Weekly
"A sweet, symmetrical story of love and 'the quiet heart.'"

Denver Post & Rocky Mountain News
"One of the most enjoyable books of the year."
 
Kirkus Review
"A genuinely funny and surprisingly touching tale. As compassionate as it is funny."

Library Journal
"Martin’s characters are sweet, sad, and gently oddballs…[He] is adept at painting vivid metaphors…a pleasure to read."
 
Carole Goldberg, Oakland Tribune
"A charmingly funny and touchingly wistful story . . . [Martin] makes this flawed man believable a