Gunther, John

TWELVE CITIES [Signed]

New York: Harper & Row, 1969. First Edition. Octavo, x, [2], 370 pages. In Very Good plus condition with a Very Good dust jacket. In full black cloth binding. Jacket is black and red with black and white lettering, wrapped in a new archival mylar sleeve. Jacket shows light scuffing to covers, with some shelving wear along the edges and mild sunning to spine. Price unclipped: "$6.95". Boards show mild rubbing along edges and at corners, with shallow crinkling at the head and tail. Spine is lightly cocked. Text block is lightly age toned along edges. Interior clean. Inscribed by Gunther to Susan and Neil Sheehan on the front flyleaf: "Every good wish to Susan & Neil Sheehan / Cordially with admiration / John Gunther / NY City / Mar 1969". Shelved in Room F.

1412640

Special Collections

Price: $125

NOTES

Inscribed by John Gunther to Susan and Neil Sheehan, “Cordially with admiration,” and dated New York City, March 1969. Gunther was among the best-known American foreign correspondents and journalists of the mid-twentieth century. After beginning his career with the Chicago Daily News, he worked for many years as a foreign correspondent in Europe and became famous for his widely read “Inside” books, beginning with Inside Europe, which analyzed international politics, leaders, and society for a popular audience.

Second Story Books is honored to offer this item from the personal collection of Neil and Susan Sheehan. Neil Sheehan (1936–2021) and Susan Sheehan (born 1937) were a distinguished husband-and-wife team whose careers helped define American literary journalism in the second half of the twentieth century. Neil Sheehan, a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for The New York Times, is best known for his role in bringing the Pentagon Papers to public attention and for his landmark book "A Bright Shining Lie", while Susan Sheehan built a parallel reputation as a leading voice at The New Yorker, crafting deeply reported narrative nonfiction on subjects ranging from mental health to social institutions, earning her own Pulitzer Prize in 1983. Their longstanding ties to major publications, particularly The New Yorker, placed them at the center of an influential cultural and intellectual network, and the books from their library carry added provenance through this close connection to the magazine’s editorial and artistic community.