MAGUIRE, Gregory. Wicked. The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. A Novel. Illustrations by Douglas Smith. NY: ReganBooks [1995]. 8vo, [viii] 406pp. Color pictorial boards. Pictorial map endpapers; illustrated title page and 5 full-page illustrations. A fine copy in original color pictorial dust jacket (price-clipped). Signed by the author, Gregory Maguire!

 

First edition. Recognized as an iconoclastic tour de force on its initial publication, the novel inspired both the blockbuster musical of the same name — one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history — as well as the Oscar-winning blockbuster film. Popular, indeed. But while the novel’s theatrical adaptations hail from the traditions of magical realism, mythopoeic fantasy, and sprawling nineteenth-century sagas of moral urgency, Maguire’s Wicked is a groundbreaking work of inspiration, pathos, and inspired a whole generation of modern re-imaginings of literary classics.