Soul Mountain
Easton Press, 2006. Collector's Edition. Full leather. Fine - As New / No Jacket as Issued. Item #5267
A handsome dark green leather Collector's edition signed by the author on the signature page. Winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature, the first recipient from China. In fine unread condition with gold gilt cover designs and page edges, moire silk endpapers and bound-in silk bookmark. Includes the publisher's Note and Certificate of Authenticity from Easton Press. A beautiful copy.
Gao explores the countless ways individuals must adapt, conform, and submit in order to survive under a totalitarian government. He was 26 years old when the Cultural Revolution began in China in 1966 and refused to follow the government's socialist realist guidelines for art and literature. Gao has spoken of destroying his early works to avoid punishment, leading a Red Guard group until suspicions about his loyalty forced him to escape to the remote countryside, and writing in secrecy until Mao's death.
In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "The Case for Literature," on December 10, 2000, Gao stated, "the revolution in literature and revolutionary literature alike passed death sentences on literature and the individual. The attack on China's traditional culture in the name of revolution led to the public prohibition and banning of books. Countless writers have been shot, imprisoned, exiled or punished with hard labour over the past hundreds of years...I began writing my novel "Soul Mountain" to dispel my inner loneliness at the very time when works I had written with rigorous self-censorship had been banned. "Soul Mountain" was written for myself and without the hope that it would be published."
Price: $235.00 other currencies