The Empty Copper Sea
Notes: Travis McGee no. 17. According to Firsts magazine (November 2002), "The Empty Copper Sea is considered by many series aficionados to be the best of them all."
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). Slight spine slant, probably from a careful reading, in a very good dust jacket with wear to the flap joints and spine ends, where the cover ink has worn away. This copy does not have the code HB10H on the last page—there is no known priority for copies with or without the code; it may indicate that two printers were employed for this book.
This copy is nicely inscribed, "For Harry & Edith, all the best. John D MacDonald 28 Aug '78. Piseco, N.Y. * — Note the dedication." The dedication is to memories of two cruise ships. MacDonald had a house at Piseco Lake and this novel was published about the third week of August 1978 (based on when newspaper reviews began appearing). Thus it seems likely that the recipients were visiting MacDonald when this book was signed or, more likely, he sent them this copy, making it a sort of dedication copy.
Publication: Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1978.
ISBN: 0397012209
Item No: #175589
Price: $500