Desert Notes. Signed by Barry Lopez. First Edition, First Printing. Sheed, Andrews & McMeel. Kansas City, 1976.

Barry Lopez was a celebrated American nature writer who published essays and fiction for many decades. He was a master at providing scientific details of nature and landscape in eloquent, spare prose. He was a keen observer of the natural world whose talent for writing left his readers transfixed, as though they were present in the places he wrote about. He won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 1986. Yet his first book, Desert Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven, was enough to establish him as a generational talent. It contains his intimate vision of nature and brings readers to the desert. The work was hailed by critics. It contains nearly a dozen essays. They are considered the best desert nature writing since Mary Austin’s The Land of Little Rain.

This first edition, first printing is signed by Lopez on the half-title page. It is in near-fine condition. In the original cloth, fine. Text block fine. In the original dust jacket, very nearly fine with only minor rubbing and creases to head of spine.

A scarce signed first edition of Desert Notes.