Thomas Harris "The Silence of the Lambs" Traycased Signed Lettered Edition "W" of 52, Leather-Bound [Very Fine]

Personally signed by Thomas Harris, who defined a genre and created one of fiction’s most likeable villains.

SIGNED LETTERED EDITION "W" OF ONLY 52 PRODUCED.

Subterranean Press 2015. Thomas Harris "The Silence of the Lambs". Signed Lettered Edition "W" of only 52 produced. Signed by Thomas Harris directly onto the limitation page. Signed by Marshall Arisman on a separate illustrated page. Half-bound in leather and cloth. Housed in a luxurious custom traycase.

Not commonly offered for purchase. This is a stunning production by Subterranean Press, and the only edition by this publisher signed by Harris.

The second novel by Thomas Harris to feature the character of Hannibal Lecter. It went on to win the Bram Stoker Award and is without a doubt one of the best in the genre of thriller fiction. Basis for the 1991 film, starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins won five Academy Awards.

"A virtual textbook on the craft of suspense" -  Washington Post

From The Publisher:

Dust jacket and interior illustrations by Marshall Arisman.

Hand lettering by Dave McKean.

Subterranean Press is proud to present an exclusive signed, limited edition of one of Thomas Harris’ most accomplished novels, The Silence of the Lambs.

It will be available in two unique editions, one signed by the artist (the limited edition) and one signed by both author and artist (the lettered edition)

1) Limited: 200 numbered copies, housed in a custom slipcase, signed by the artist. (Note: This edition is not signed by the author.)

2) Lettered: 52 signed (by author and artist) copies, half bound in leather and cloth, housed in a custom traycase. (Note: This is one of our finest productions.)

This listing is for the second state. 

The second book in Thomas Harris’s Hannibal series, The Silence of the Lambs was first published in 1988; a sequel to the author’s 1981 novel, Red Dragon. This time, the cannibalistic forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter is called upon by FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling, to use his powers of deduction to assist her in tracking down the grotesque serial killer known only as Buffalo Bill. But to enlist Dr. Lecter’s help, Starling will have to risk everything by letting him inside of her mind.

In Red Dragon, author Thomas Harris introduced us to Dr. Hannibal Lecter, and in The Silence of the Lambs he ushers Lecter to center stage, creating one of the most iconic and enduring villains the page and screen have ever known.

Ingenious and masterfully written, The Silence of the Lambs is a modern-day classic of suspense and storytelling.

The Silence of the Lambs

An ingenious, masterfully written novel, Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs is a classic of suspense and storytelling and the basis for the Oscar award-winning horror film starring Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname―Buffalo Bill―is stalking particular women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the F.B.I. Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, Chief of the Bureau's Behavioral Science section. Her assignment: to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and grisly killer now kept under close watch in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Lecter's insight into the minds of murderers could help track and capture Buffalo Bill.

Smart and attractive, Starling is shaken to find herself in a strange, intense relationship with the acutely perceptive Lecter. His cryptic clues―about Buffalo Bill and about her―launch Clarice on a search that every reader will find startling, harrowing, and totally compelling.

Amazon Review

The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, is even better than the successful movie. Like his earlier Red Dragon, the book takes us inside the world of professional criminal investigation. All the elements of a well-executed thriller are working here--driving suspense, compelling characters, inside information, publicity-hungry bureaucrats thwarting the search, and the clock ticking relentlessly down toward the death of another young woman. What enriches this well-told tale is the opportunity to live inside the minds of both the crime fighters and the criminals as each struggles in a prison of pain and seeks, sometimes violently, relief.
Clarice Starling, a precociously self-disciplined FBI trainee, is dispatched by her boss, Section Chief Jack Crawford, the FBI's most successful tracker of serial killers, to see whether she can learn anything useful from Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Lecter's a gifted psychopath whose nickname is "The Cannibal" because he likes to eat parts of his victims. Isolated by his crimes from all physical contact with the human race, he plays an enigmatic game of "Clue" with Starling, providing her with snippets of data that, if she is smart enough, will lead her to the criminal. Undaunted, she goes where the data takes her. As the tension mounts and the bureaucracy thwarts Starling at every turn, Crawford tells her, "Keep the information and freeze the feelings." Insulted, betrayed, and humiliated, Starling struggles to focus. If she can understand Lecter's final, ambiguous scrawl, she can find the killer. But can she figure it out in time? --Barbara Schlieper

More Reviews

“Razor-sharp entertainment, beautifully constructed and brilliantly written. Thrillers don't come any better than this.” ―Clive Barker

“A virtual textbook on the craft of suspense, a masterwork of sheer momentum that rockets seamlessly toward its climax... Harris is quite simply the best suspense novelist working today.” ―The Washington Post

“A psychological thriller so deftly woven and gripping that a reader can hardly get through one sentence fast enough to discover what's in the next.” ―Associated Press

“It's marvelous, the best book I've read for a very long time…It is infinitely superior to any novel published this year.” —Roald Dahl

“THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS will haunt for a long time; Harris places his clues and his carnage with precision.” —Philadelphia Inquirer

“As remarkable as its predecessor…some of the most powerful and entertaining fiction of our time!” —The Washington Post

“Fast-paced…intriguing…exciting!” —Chicago Tribune

“Without a doubt, [Harris is] one of the most powerful writers of suspense fiction today!” —Milwaukee Journal

“Harris has once again hit us in the solar plexus. This is, in fact, a better read than Red Dragon, which is all you need to know…A page-turner, one of those books that, once picked up, becomes immediately addictive.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

“The plot unreels rapidly…Hooks the reader and keeps the tension taut until the end.” —Portland Oregonian

“I read the first sentence of this book, threw up my hands and then stayed up all night to finish. It didn't matter, I've scarcely slept since.” —Liz Smith

“One of the most gripping reads of the year.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Thrillingly effective…Harris understands the crafting of literary terror as very few writers do; readers who put themselves in his good, cold-blooded hands will lose sleep and demand a sequal.” —Publishers Weekly

“Intelligent, fast-paced…Hard to put down.” —Library Journal

“Beautifully written.” —San Francisco Chronicle

About the author

William Thomas Harris III (born September 22, 1940) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, the most notable being The Silence of the Lambs, which became only the third film in Academy Awards history to sweep the Oscars in major categories.

Approach to writing and critical reception

Fellow novelist Stephen King remarked that if writing is sometimes tedious for other authors, to Harris it is like "writhing on the floor in agonies of frustration", because for Harris, "the very act of writing is a kind of torment". Novelist John Dunning said of Harris, "All he is is a talent of the first rank." In 2019, he elaborated on his process, as well as the difficulty, describing it as "passive [...], sometimes you really have to shove and grunt and sweat. Some days you go to your office and you're the only one who shows up, none of the characters show up, and you sit there by yourself, feeling like an idiot. And some days everybody shows up ready to work. You have to show up at your office every day. If an idea comes by, you want to be there to get it in."

Marshall Arisman

Marshall Arisman (October 14, 1938 – April 22, 2022) was an American illustrator, painter, storyteller, and educator.

While working as a graphic designer for General Motors, Arisman took evening courses in figure drawing. He went on to produce illustrations for major American periodicals including The New York Times, Mother Jones, The Nation, OMNI, Time, and Penthouse. He has also illustrated books, including Fitcher's Bird (1983), and Frozen Images (1974), published by Visual Arts Press.

Arisman created a multimedia installation work titled The Last Tribe (2009). An exploration of the theme of nuclear annihilation, the work incorporates painting, sculpture, and video. The video can be viewed online. Arisman's paintings have been exhibited in a number of one-man shows in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Permanent collections that include Arisman's paintings include the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian, and the Museum of American Art. His show Sacred Monkeys was the first American exhibit to be shown in Mainland China, and his work is included in a permanent collection in China.

More recently, he has exhibited the Ayahuasca Series, a series of oil paintings, which is in part based on the religious rituals of the Quechua people. His Ayahuasca Series was on exhibit at the Zadok Gallery in Miami, Florida, from January 1 to May 1, 2012.

Arisman released an album of his own stories, Cobalt Blue, in 2008.

He was chair of the degree program "Illustration as Visual Essay" at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.