Basin and Range

Description

Author: McPhee, John (1931-)

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux

Pub Date: 1981

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: 2 copies.  Copy 1:  Book: Fair to Good.  Binding tight.  No tears, bends or folds.  Some wear to spine head.  Embossed front board.   Smudging to top text block.   Very light edge and corner wear.  Dust Jacket: Fair.  NOT price clipped.  Fold at lower corner of front flap.  Spine head worn, chipped.  Spine sun-faded.  Edge and corner wear.  Copy 2: Book: Fair.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, bends or folds.  Very slightly cocked.  Gilt on spine still sharp, easily readable.  Light edge and corner wear.  Dust Jacket: Fair.  NOT price clipped.  Wear to upper and lower edges, front and rear.  Spine sun-faded.

Notes: McPhee takes on the geology of the United States, along the fortieth parallel.  This is the first volume of his “Annals of the Former World”.  If you’ve never read McPhee, try this: “The poles of the earth have wandered.  The equator has apparently moved.  The continents, perched on their plates, are thought to have been carried so very far and to be going in so many directions that it seems an act of almost pure hubris to assert that some landmark of our world is fixed at 73 degrees 57 minutes and 53 seconds west longitude and 40 degrees 51 minutes and 14 seconds north latitude–a temporary description, at any rate, as if for a boat on the sea.  Nevertheless, these coordinates will, for what is generally described as the foreseeable future, bring you with absolute precision to the west apron of the George Washington Bridge.” (page 3)  From the global to the local, in almost one paragraph.  A paperback version is also available.  See  https://joethebookguy.com/shop/travel/basin-and-range/