New York: Dial Press, (1988) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A book which is a tribute to the ordinary things of life - "Way over yonder, sometime in the nineteenth century, a young farmer plants a plum tree. The farmer marries, plows the land, and sheds his solitary way of life. Children, then grandchildren, are born; summer melts in to blazing autumn, into frozen winter; the plum tree blossoms and sheds its blossoms; the farmer grows old. Gradually on family's history is illuminated till it becomes as vivid as our own. " SIGNED on the title page by Johnston and dated 1988 in the year of publication. Illustrated with glowing oil paintings by Llyod Bloom, Oblong format, unpaginated. ISBN: 0-803702779.