Lincoln. A Novel.

Limited first edition. Sm. 4to. Pp. [10], 657, [5]. Full navy blue leather, elaborately gilt in 22kt. gold to boards and spine, raised bands and gilt titles to spine, smyth sewn binding; printed on Franklin's own laid bond paper, a.e.g., marbled endpapers, sewn in silk ribbon marker. B/w illus. by Thomas B. Allen. True first edition. Signed by Vidal to second f.f.e.p. Includes an introduction by the author, not found in the trade edition.

Part of his 'Narratives of Empire' series and based on extant records, this is Vidal's ambitious portrait of Lincoln during the Civil War years. Basis for the 1988 TV mini-series directed by Lamont Johnson, starring Sam Waterston and Mary Tyler Moore. "Superb... a grand entertainment.... A plausible and human Lincoln, of us and yet beyond us." –Harold Bloom