New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, (1995) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - A book which "looks at luck from multiple perspectives, including how language shapes the way we think about luck; the differences between luck, fortune, and fate; the history of the idea of luck in the Western tradition; and the impossibility of shaping or directing luck. Rescher supports the belief that luck favors the prepared. He encourages the reader to take reasonable, carefully calculated risks, assuming that luck will run favorably more frequently than unfavorably. Finally, he contends that, without luck, life as we know it would be unsustainable, that the randomness of good and bad luck gives life the spice that makes it palatable." (Booklist) INSCRIBED by the author to Oklahoma collector Larry Owens. Notes, index. Small format. 237 pp. ISBN: 0-374194289.