Soul Mountain [ Sealed ]

Gao Xingjian

Easton Press, 2006. Collector's Edition. Full leather. New / No Jacket as Issued. Item #5268

A beautiful signed edition, still in the original publisher-issued shrinkwrap. Many collectors appreciate the opportunity to acquire editions that remain unopened.

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 in the original shrinkwrap, with gold gilt cover designs and page edges, moire silk endpapers and bound-in silk bookmark. The author is currently living in Paris in exile. A beautiful copy.

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "The Case for Literature," Gao discussed the damage Mao’s totalitarian government inflicted on culture, robbing the Chinese language of creative and cultural development alongside the loss of individual creative freedom. He described the "enormous difficulties for writings in the Chinese language and even more for any discussion of creative freedom...During the years when Mao Zedong implemented total dictatorship even fleeing was not an option. The monasteries on far away mountains that provided refuge for scholars in feudal times were totally ravaged...to write even in secret was to risk one's life. To maintain one's intellectual autonomy one could only talk to oneself, and it had to be in utmost secrecy. I should mention that it was only in this period when it was utterly impossible for literature that I came to comprehend why it was so essential: literature allows a person to preserve human consciousness."

Price: $300.00  other currencies