"The Weight of Words" Signed Limited Edition No. 331 of 350 Leather-Bound [Very Fine]

Personally signed by all 11 contributors across three pages.

Signed Limited Edition No. 331 of only 350

Subterranean Press 2017. "The Weight of Words". Anthology. Signed Limited Edition no. 331 of only 350 produced. Dust jacket and interior illustrations by Dave McKean. Very Fine without any flaws. Hardcover book with dust-jacket. The dust-jacket is now protected in a new archival acid-free Brodart sleeve. 248 pages.

Edited by William Schafer and Dave McKean.

This special leather bound anthology has been personally signed by: 

1. Neil Gaiman
2. Joe Hill
3. William Schafer
4. M. John Harrison
5. Dave McKean
6. Alastair Reynolds
7. Iain Sinclair
8. Marie Dahvana Headley
9. Caitlin R. Kiernan
10. Joe R. Lansdale
11. Catherynne M. Valente

About the Book:

The consummate artistry of Dave McKean has permeated popular culture for more than thirty years. His images, at once bizarre, beautiful, and instantly recognizable, have graced an impressive array of books, CDs, graphic novels, and films. In The Weight of Words, ten of our finest contemporary storytellers, among them the artist himself, have created a series of varied, compelling narratives, each inspired by one of McKean’s extraordinary paintings. The result is a unique collaborative effort in which words and pictures enhance and illuminate each other on page after page.

The volume opens with Alastair Reynolds’s “Belladonna Nights,” set in the world of his novel, House of Suns, the ultimately poignant portrait of a thousand nights-long “reunion” held in the far reaches of space. Elsewhere in this generous book, we find a series of lovingly crafted tales featuring, among other elements, doppelgangers, lost souls and lucid dreamers. Highlights include Joe R. Lansdale’s “Robo Rapid,” a near future cautionary tale about Man vs. Machine; M. John Harrison’s “Yummie,” in which a middle-aged man experiences the hallucinatory aftermath of a heart attack; Joe Hill’s “All I Care About Is You,” the account of a pure, if temporary, friendship; Catherynne M. Valente’s extraordinary “No One Dies in Nowhere,” a tale of death and detection in the afterlife; Maria Dahvana Headley’s “The Orange Tree,” the story of an 11th century golem that is also a profound study of loneliness; and “Monkey and the Lady,” an ironic creation myth by the artist’s longtime friend and creative associate, Neil Gaiman. Together with “Train of Death,” an abbreviated account of the literal death of literature, this is one of two new stories by the always remarkable Gaiman.

The Weight of Words is the rare anthology that really does offer something for everyone. Its complementary merger of words and images adds up to something special, something more than the sum of its impressive parts. It is both a major accomplishment in itself and a long overdue tribute to an important—and necessary—artist.

The Weight of Words contains more than two dozen illustrations by Dave McKean, and is printed in two colors throughout.

This edition was published in the following 3 states. 

1. Lettered: 26 signed numbered copies, specially bound, housed in a custom traycase
2. Limited: 350 signed numbered copies, bound in leather
3. Trade: Fully cloth-bound hardcover edition

The listing is for state #2.

Table of Contents:

• The Weight of Words — Dave McKean
• Belladonna Nights — Alastair Reynolds
• The Orange Tree — Maria Dahvana Headley
• Monkey and the Lady — Neil Gaiman
• No One Dies in Nowhere — Catherynne M. Valente
• Objects in the Mirror — Caitlin R. Kiernan
• Yummie — M. John Harrison
• Robo Rapid — Joe R. Lansdale
• The Language of Birds — Dave McKean
• Broken Face — Iain Sinclair
• All I Care About is You — Joe Hill
• The Train of Death — Neil Gaiman

Reviews

From The New York Times:

“Offering a more traditional, but no less impressive, relationship between art and prose, THE WEIGHT OF WORDS is a stunningly produced anthology of original fiction inspired by the work of Dave McKean… Many anthologies are organized around a stated theme, but few are organized around a mood; what most impressed me about ‘The Weight of Words’ was its sustained core of loneliness, memory and loss across extraordinarily different styles of storytelling, from the sinuous far-future elegance of Reynolds’s ‘Belladonna Nights’ to the sharp, fragmented opacity of Sinclair’s ‘Broken Face.’ Every piece felt steeped in the sepia tones of McKean’s unsettling art… The caliber of fiction here is genuinely remarkable.”

From Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“McKean’s storied career as an illustrator, comics creator, and fine artist is the basis for this magnificent anthology, which contains 12 stories inspired by specific McKean images (all of which are included), as well as a short McKean comic. High points include Catherynne M. Valente’s stunning “No One Dies in Nowhere,” a mystery told in Valente’s characteristically lush prose with the precise discipline of a classical tragedy; Alastair Reynolds’s poignant “Belladonna Nights,” science fiction set in a far future in which the many scattered offshoots of a single personality hold reunions every 200,000 years; and Maria Dahvana Headley’s erudite “The Orange Tree,” a golem story set in 11th-century Andalusia. The collection also includes wonderful, intricate pieces from M. John Harrison, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Iain Sinclair.”