FEYNMAN, Richard (1918-1988). QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Very fine inscribed copy of the first edition, signed and with an original "Feynman diagram." Distilled from a series of public lectures at UCLA in 1983, this was Feynman’s only non-technical account of his work in quantum electrodynamics. Gleick calls it a model of science writing. This is a first edition but not first printing; it has the spine lettered in violet (earlier than gilt), but with wove endpapers and the jacket omitting the advertisement for Peierls's Bird of passage (1985), to which Feynman had objected (points according to Princeton University Press records). Feynman has signed this copy on the half-title above a Feynman diagram, his signature graphic method of representing the interactions of elementary particles. Exhibited: "The Heavens Revealed," Chapin Library, Williams College, 2003.

Octavo (215 x 135mm). Half-title, numerous text-diagrams. Publisher's black cloth, color pictorial dust-jacket (tiny nick to front flap fold).