A Sense of Where You Are (1965) Signed First Edition Reference

A Sense of Where You Are (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965) is McPhee’s first book — a profile of Bill Bradley as a Princeton basketball player that expanded from a New Yorker piece into a slim, elegant book about talent, discipline, and spatial intelligence. The title phrase — describing Bradley’s uncanny ability to know where he was on the court without looking — became a metaphor for McPhee’s own literary gift: the ability to locate the essential in any subject.

First Edition Identification

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1965
• Blue cloth binding, dust jacket with basketball photo
• First edition stated, no additional printings noted
• 120 pages

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed first in jacket: $300–$600+
• Unsigned first in jacket: $100–$250
• Without jacket: $30–$60

McPhee’s debut is the scarcest title in his bibliography — the print run was small, and demand from both sports collectors and McPhee completists keeps prices firm. The jacket is essential for premium value.