Vietnam/The Sixties 2, Sixties Novels 1
Only a handful of novels can be viewed as being remarkably influential on the youth movements of the Sixties: for the most part, inspiration was sought, and found, elsewhere. But of those that were influential, their influence was pervasive, and they represent cultural touchstones for an entire generation. Much as everyone who lived through that time recalls the Top 40 songs of the era--mostly because there were no alternatives on radio at the time--most people will recall the same group of novels, some of which were bestsellers, some of which became part of school and college curricula, and some of which were just passed from hand to hand, and spread by word of mouth. While these listed below are not the only novels that were influential at the time, this small selection still represents a sizable percentage of the books of fiction or literature that defined the era.
337. BEAGLE, Peter S. The Last Unicorn. NY: Viking (1968). Advance review copy of this fantasy classic. Fine in a fine dust jacket, and inscribed by the author: "For ___ & ___ - the one I broke my ass over..." One of Pringle's 100 Best Modern Fantasy Novels, and one of the key books of a decade that found metaphors and models in a number of science fiction and fantasy novels. An extraordinary copy of a book that, because of its soft, unlaminated dust jacket, seldom turns up in such condition, let alone in an advance issue and with the author's revealing inscription. Probably as nice a copy as could be hoped for.
338. BOWLES, Paul. The Sheltering Sky. London: Lehmann (1949). The first edition of Bowles's landmark first novel, an influential tale of Westerners abroad in North Africa, encountering an alien and previously unsuspected world as they discover unknown aspects of themselves. One critic summarized it thus: "The Sheltering Sky shows his remarkable feeling for the power of the African town and desert to generate existential fear and panic in characters exhausted and degenerated by Western urban excess. He is a master of cruelty and isolation, and the ironies of the search for meaning in an inadequately understood environment." Spine-cocked, upper corners bumped; otherwise a near fine copy in a lightly spine-tanned dust jacket with modest wear at the extremities; still about near fine. An important first novel, which anticipated the literature of the Beat movement and later the Sixties counterculture, with its focus on the experiential and on alternate states of mind, whether drug-induced or provoked by exposure to foreign lands and cultures. 4000 copies were printed, and the book was reprinted several times in short order. The first edition has become very scarce in recent years.
339. BURGESS, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. London: Heinemann (1962). The true first edition, first issue, of his alarming and controversial view of a future beset by violence, technological excess and authoritarianism, which was made into a classic film by Stanley Kubrick in 1971. A novel of societal breakdown that was influential even before Kubrick made his film. Slight foxing to page edges; near fine in a modestly spine-tanned, very good first issue dust jacket with a thin line of rubbing across the front panel, one very small corner chip, and moderate wear to the crown. A very attractive copy of a book that, because of its soft paper jacket, seldom shows up in fine condition.
Naked Lunch Inscribed to Jim Carroll
340. BURROUGHS, William. Naked Lunch. NY: Grove (1959)[c. 1962]. His second novel, one of the great drugs novels of all time, which was censored in this country and could not be published here until three years after its publication in Paris, and then only after a number of literary celebrities argued its case as a novel of great literary merit and import. Naked Lunch was printed in a tiny edition of 3500 copies in this country--a smaller number than had been printed in France in 1959. It was reprinted many times and became an underground classic in the Sixties. This is a badly waterstained copy: the endpapers, in particular show substantial bleeding from the top edge stain, as do the foredges of the pages. An excellent association copy, however: inscribed by the author to poet (later rock musician) Jim Carroll, author of The Basketball Diaries. Carroll was of a younger generation than Burroughs: his memoir is one of the key coming-of-age accounts of the Sixties. Overall, aside from the dampstaining, this would be a very good copy in a very good, internally tape-strengthened dust jacket. One of the best association copies we have ever seen of this important novel.
341. BURROUGHS, William S. The Ticket that Exploded. Paris: Olympia Press (1962). First edition, a paperback original published in Paris by Maurice Girodias' press. This copy belonged to artist Alfonse Ossorio, who is credited with designing the dust jacket of the Paris first edition of Burroughs' Naked Lunch. Signed by Ossorio and dated 1963 on the title page. Slight spine-slant otherwise near fine, without dust jacket.
Rare Proof Copy of In Cold Blood
342. CAPOTE, Truman. In Cold Blood. NY: Random House (1965). Ringbound uncorrected proof copy of Capote's famous "nonfiction novel," about the brutal killings of a Kansas family and the subsequent arrest, trials and execution of the killers. A landmark book of its time for the literary barriers that it broke down. Capote, who by that time was a highly regarded literary figure, had said that he intended to pick a subject that was of absolutely no personal importance to him, and write a strictly factual book that would nevertheless be a literary work of art--bridging the gap between literature and nonfiction or, rather, obliterating it. Capote's success at turning his reporting into a work of art--and the similar efforts of such writers as Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe and later Hunter Thompson--defined a new genre that has been one of the lasting literary legacies of the Sixties. This proof is printed from galleys, on rectos only, in tall, ringbound wrappers. A very scarce proof: we've seen only one other copy. Name on front cover (presumably the reviewer to whom it was assigned) and publication date and one-word comment ("Excellent," underlined) in ink. Near fine in a custom clamshell box.
343. -. Same title, the advance reading copy. Increasingly uncommon in the advance issue. This is a near fine copy in self-wrappers.
344. COHEN, Leonard. Beautiful Losers. NY: Viking (1966). The first American edition--reportedly preceding the Canadian edition--of the landmark second novel by the Canadian poet-folksinger, one of the key books of the Sixties--a "visionary counter-culture religious epic" in the words of one critic. In its paperback reprint edition, it was ubiquitous on college campuses and passed hand-to-hand by a generation that was finding itself increasingly alienated from the mainstream, dominant culture. Fading to top stain, else fine in a near fine dust jacket with one edge tear. A very attractive copy of this important novel.
345. CONDON, Richard. The Manchurian Candidate. NY: McGraw-Hill (1959). The author's second novel, a landmark novel of Cold War intrigue and the surreal world of spies and intelligence agencies. Basis for one of the defining movies of the Cold War era, and a precursor to the elaborate and sophisticated spy novels of John Le CarrÉ and others. The book, and more especially the movie made from it, helped set the tenor of the times--a skepticism of authority and authority figures, and a distrust of the uses of political and military power. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with slight edge wear and a little spine-fading. A nice copy of a not-particularly-well-made book.
346. FARIÑA, Richard. Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me. NY: Random House (1966). The author's first and only novel, a high spot of the literature of the Sixties. Fariña's protagonist, the pot-smoking rebel Gnossos Pappadopoulis, was the embodiment of hip, bridging the gap from the Beat movement of the 1950s to the counterculture of the 1960s. Fariña was involved in the folk music scene of the early Sixties: with his wife, Mimi--Joan Baez's sister--he was a major figure in the folk-rock music that was closely tied to the youth social protest movements of that time--the civil rights and anti-war movements--which led directly to the large-scale social protest of the later years of the decade, and the hippie movement which embraced that social protest and transformed it into a cultural movement affecting everything from the arts to agriculture. Fariña was killed in a motorcycle accident on the way to the publication party for this novel, an event that firmly entrenched both book and author in the mythology of the Sixties. Offsetting to the endpages; otherwise fine in a near fine, internally foxed dust jacket.
347. -. Another copy. Very good in a mildly edgeworn dust jacket.
348. -. Same title, the reissue (NY: Viking, 1983). With a new introduction by Thomas Pynchon which details his and Fariña's relationship at Cornell and afterward. Issued simultaneously in paperback and hardcover, this is a hardcover copy. This edition was printed on cheap paper which is darkening slightly with age; otherwise fine in a fine dust jacket. A very small hardcover printing, which has now become quite scarce.
349. FOWLES, John. The Magus. London: Cape (1966). First English edition of Fowles' second novel, a near-fantasy set on a Greek island and involving a young expatriate Englishman who is drawn into the fantastic designs of a self-styled psychic. An ambitious novel that was made into a movie that gained a cult following in the Sixties and was later made into a moderately successful, and somewhat psychedelic, film with Anthony Quinn. Price inked out in red on front endpaper; else fine in a near fine jacket with spots of wear at the corners of the spine folds.
350. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Signatures darkening in varying degrees, minor spine creasing; near fine in wrappers.
351. GOLDING, William. Lord of the Flies. London: Faber & Faber (1954). The uncorrected proof copy of the Nobel Prize-winning author's landmark first book, which has been made into two different movies and which exerted a powerful influence on a generation's ideas about the fundamental characteristics of human nature. Variations from the published version include the page numbering in the table of contents and the publisher's address. It was believed by Golding's editor, Charles Monteith, that the book had never been bound in proof form at all, as the title was rushed into production for entry into the Cheltenham First Novel Competition. One of four copies known. Foxing to page edges; spine faded; a very good copy of a scarce and fragile state of this important first novel. In custom clamshell box.
352. -. Same title, the first American edition (NY: Coward-McCann, 1955). Lord of the Flies had been an important novel when first published in the Fifties, but it was in the Sixties that it came to be a perennial bestseller, being incorporated into school reading lists and informing the debate about the fundamental nature of man and the relative importance of socialization--issues that underlay much of the protest, and much of the experimentation, in the Sixties. Light foxing to the top edge and sunning to the spine base; near fine in a dust jacket with a small chip near the crown and a bit of splitting to the lower spine folds; still about near fine. An attractive copy of a contemporary classic.
353. "GREEN, Hannah." GREENBURG, Joanne. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. NY: HRW (1964). A pseudonymously published novel of a young woman battling schizophrenia that became a huge bestseller in paperback later in the Sixties. One of the key books of the decade which, by 1977, had sold five million copies and, in one survey, was the fourth most widely-read title from the Sixties, following only The Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22, and The Prophet. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Quite scarce in the first edition.
354. HEINLEIN, Robert A. Stranger in a Strange Land. [NY: Putnam, 1961]. Taiwan piracy of Heinlein's classic, winner of the Hugo Award for best novel of the year, and one of the most influential books on the counterculture of the Sixties. Only a handful of novels were significant in helping articulate the terms by which the counterculture defined itself: the era was characterized more by experiment and experience. This novel, however, with its society of aliens who indulged in free love, lived communally, and communicated telepathically, anticipated many of the aspects of the hippie movement, and its attempt to redefine the social contract. Heinlein's imagined world suggested that new paradigms of behavior could be invented, as he had, by intellectual inclination, emotional predilection, and sheer will. The book was so widely read that at least one invented alien word--grok, meaning to understand fully, with one's complete being--became a part of the hippie vernacular and is still in use today. Previous owner name; near fine in a very good jacket, with an internally repaired tear at the upper edge of the front panel.
355. HELLER, Joseph. Catch-22. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1961. Joseph Heller's first book was another of the small number of widely read, influential novels of the Sixties. Like Heinlein's book, it was published in the early years of the decade, got good reviews in its field, and later, in its incarnation as a mass market paperback, became a generational bellwether. Heller's book is a darkly humorous novel of World War II and military life, whose message was ultimately one of suspicion and skepticism toward established authority, and whose title became part of the language, signifying a contradictory set of instructions or constraints. In the years of escalating protest against the American involvement in Vietnam--and the increasingly tortured official rationale for American presence there--Heller's black humor helped define a viable posture toward authority that became part of the ethos of the Sixties--irreverent, cynical and knowing, and critical of any established authority, especially bureaucracy. The novel was the basis for a well-received movie. Mottling to cloth, thus very good in a very good dust jacket with moderate edgewear that has been internally tape-repaired.
356. HERBERT, Frank. Dune. Philadelphia/NY: Chilton (1965). A classic science fiction novel, winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best science fiction novel of the year--an uncommon literary "double." Dune is a massive novel by a writer who, until its publication, had been a minor American science fiction author, and the book was issued by a publisher more well-known for its auto repair manuals than for its fiction. Dune is a saga set on the windswept planet Arrakis, whose only export is the drug of immortality, Melange. While the labyrinthine plot includes court intrigue and romance, the two elements that made it a bestseller on college campuses in the Sixties were its depiction of a drug used to expand human awareness, and the interstellar jihad that drives the plot: an apocalyptic religious war and the use of hallucinogens found their clear analogues in the movements of the Sixties, and touched the nerve of the generation the way that Stranger in a Strange Land had. This copy has slight foxing on the page edges and a small splatter on the top edge; still near fine in a slightly spine-faded, near fine dust jacket. A remarkably nice copy of this bulky, somewhat oversize book, whose jacket is very susceptible to fading and wear. One of the nicest copies we have seen in years of a very scarce novel.
357. HESSE, Hermann. Siddhartha. London: Peter Owen/Vision Press (1954). Another of the relatively small handful of novels that were widely read in the Sixties and had significant social impact. This lyrical novel of the life of Buddha by the German Nobel Prize winner was originally published in German in 1922 and translated into English in 1954, and in the Sixties it became the introduction to Eastern philosophy and mysticism for an entire generation of Western youth. Hesse became a cult figure to the counterculture--his novels of brooding artists and young people alienated from their parents' society resonated with the disaffected youth of the Sixties. The psychological insights he incorporated into his writings, mixing Jungian depth psychology with Indian mysticism, were compelling to a generation exploring inner space by experimenting with marijuana and psychedelic drugs. Small bookseller stamp front pastedown; else fine in a very good dust jacket with light chipping at the extremities and corners and several very small edge tears. An attractive copy of a scarce edition.
358. HESSE, Hermann. The Glass Bead Game. (Magister Ludi). NY: HRW (1969). First edition of this new translation of the book that some consider Hesse's masterwork, re-published at the height of the resurgence of his popularity during the late Sixties, with a Peter Max-like psychedelic dust jacket design. Das Glasperlenspiel was originally published in Germany in 1943, and it is widely credited with being the book that earned Hesse the Nobel Prize, which he won in 1946. It was translated into English in 1950 and then re-translated for this edition in the late Sixties. The Glass Bead Game is a utopian novel set in the distant future, in which an elite group of adepts rise to greater levels of perfection in a symbolic bead game that incorporates all the knowledge of the ages, "the total contents and values of our culture" while shunning the actual world. Fine in a price-clipped, near fine dust jacket.
359. HUXLEY, Aldous. Island. London: Chatto & Windus (1962). The uncorrected proof copy of the last novel by Huxley, one of the most prolific and important British authors of the century, who became a countercultural icon during the 1960s. Huxley began to explore Eastern religions and mysticism in the 1930s, after he had written Brave New World, and in the early 1950s he experimented with mescaline and other psychedelic drugs, finding a strong parallel between the drug-induced state and the mystical experiences he had previously only read about. He wrote two short books on his drug experiences--The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell--describing the psychedelic experience in terms borrowed from oriental mystical traditions. The two were later reprinted in one volume, which became an underground bestseller in the Sixties. Island is Huxley's vision of a utopia founded in a shared experience of religious bliss, and a direct rebuttal to the vision he proposed in Brave New World. Publication date rubber-stamped on front cover. Spine slanted, lightened and lightly creased; overall near fine in wrappers. Not a particularly uncommon book, but very scarce in proof form.
360. -. Same title, the trade edition. Fine in a fine dust jacket. While not an especially scarce book--Huxley was a major literary figure and a new novel by him could be counted on as a major event in the publishing season--fine copies are quite uncommon. A very nice copy.