This is the title page from the Franklin Library first edition. This is the copyright page from the Franklin Library first edition.

It is leather bound and published by the Franklin Library. This is the true first edition of The Bonfire of the Vanities. The first trade edition says 'First printing, 1987' on the copyright page, and no references to subsequent printings (other than the Franklin signed first edition.) Pages: 659 The true first edition was a limited edition published by the Franklin Library under a special arangement with Farrar Straus Giroux, the publisher of the first trade edition. By first provoking a reader’s interest and then prolonging it, his award-winning designs are both intriguing and effective.First Edition Points and Criteria for The Bonfire of the Vanities A sense of restraint and suspense is present in the artist’s book jackets, which do not reveal their true meaning at first glance. An avid reader and a lover of books, he read every manuscript from cover to cover, and from the mid-1970s through the early 1990s, created artwork for more than forty jackets each year. Typically, an author’s name was placed prominently at the top of the design in type large enough to be read across a crowded bookstore, and illustrations were small or non-existent.Īrt directors and publishers eagerly commissioned Marcellino’s evocative blend of imagery and typography, which provided compelling glimpses into sophisticated novels by serious authors. At the time, the ‘Big Book’ look in publishing was the rage. With the rare ability to translate the feeling and style of an entire manuscript in one image, he defied conventional wisdom and proved that elegant, subtly painted covers could attract readers and sell books. If a book is good, images just come forth.” Though the covers of books provide relatively small surfaces for artistic expression, they fueled Fred Marcellino’s powers of creativity and imagination. Instead, I want to reflect it, to crystallize the book’s feeling. Marcellino noted that, “As an artist, I don’t really want to editorialize about a book – to make a statement about it from a point of view. Tom Wolfe is a best-selling author whose noted works include The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Painted Word, The Right Stuff, and The Bonfire of the Vanities. He flies over the supposed boundary between graphic and fine art at will. In fact, Fred’s treatment of the title was one of several brilliant touches in what turned out to be a uniquely stylish (as well as profitable) work of art. But I try not to interfere in publishing decisions like that one. “You can’t read the title,” I said to myself. The first time I laid eyes on Fred Marcellino’s cover design for The Bonfire of the Vanities, I was stupefied. 'About Fred Marcellino,' by Author Tom Wolfe: Collection of the Estate of Fred Marcellino.

Author of the bonfire of the vanities