Vietnam/The Sixties 2, Sixties Novels 2
361. KEROUAC, Jack. On the Road. NY: Viking, 1957. His second novel, the quintessential "road novel" and the book that defined the Beat generation. Kerouac's fictionalized account of his exploits with his friend Neal Cassady--here depicted as "Dean Moriarty"--became a cultural landmark. The Beats' attempts to self-consciously live life to the fullest inspired successive generations to emulate Kerouac's characters, and their exploration of eastern religions helped promote the growth in popularity of Zen and other Eastern traditions in the West in the last forty years. On the Road also popularized the concept of "recreational" drug use, which was novel in the Fifties but taken for granted by the time the Sixties counterculture took hold. Unlike many self-consciously "hip" novels, both before and since, it continues to be read and admired today, retaining its relevance and freshness by virtue of the immediacy of its writing, the clarity of its youthful perceptions, and the authenticity of the characters' quests. All by itself, it ensures Kerouac's standing as an important American writer. Bookseller's small ink notations on pastedown, trace residue of a previous jacket protector on lower board edges; near fine in a near fine dust jacket with a little fading and rubbing to the spine and creasing on the rear flap fold. A much-nicer-than-usual copy of this postwar classic, one of the most influential books of its time.
362. -. Another copy. Some fading to the top stain, flaking to the spine lettering, a few creased page corners and an owner name on the front pastedown; very good in a typically spine-faded and rubbed dust jacket, chipped at the extremities and corners and with a couple of long, closed edge tears that bear some attempts at internal tape-repairing; also with a few penciled notes on the rear flap fold; the jacket is only good. Still, a presentable copy of one of the high spots of postwar American literature.
363. KESEY, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. NY: Viking, 1962. Kesey's landmark first novel, set in a mental hospital in which Kesey's protagonist, Randall Patrick McMurphy, who is one of the inmates, is clearly more sane than his captors, although he is eventually destroyed by them. The iconoclastic, individualistic stance of Kesey's hero in the face of the "Combine" became a model for anti-establishment youth through the Sixties, especially after Kesey became a counterculture icon as leader of the Merry Pranksters, architect of the Trips Festival, etc. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest helped shape the generation's attitude toward authority, much as Catch-22 had done, and the crazy and oppressive logic of McMurphy's keepers became more and more recognizable as official explanations and rationales for the ongoing, escalating war in Vietnam became more tortuous and unbelievable. The notion that mainstream American society was, in effect, a mental hospital in which the inmates were more sane than those in charge became a widely held, albeit usually implicitly held, belief as the decade wore on. This is a fine copy in a near fine jacket that is slightly spine-faded--the nicest copy we've seen of this title in several years. In a custom clamshell box.
364. -. Same title (NY: Viking 1973). The hardcover edition of the Viking Critical Library edition, edited by John Clark Pratt, which combines the text of the novel with critical essays about the writer and the work, reviews, and excerpts from other writings by Kesey that shed light on the novel. An important edition: the publication of Kesey's book in this series helped confirm its place as a part of the canon of American literature. Simultaneously published in softcover--and reprinted many times in hardcover--the hardcover first printing of this edition is very scarce, particularly as an advance copy. Foxed at the top edge; otherwise fine in a fine dust jacket.
365. KESEY, Ken. Sometimes a Great Notion. NY: Viking (1964). Kesey's second and most ambitious novel, about a logging family in Oregon, and embodying the individualistic values that led Kesey, shortly thereafter, to become a counterculture leader and icon. Made into the movie Never Give an Inch. Circulation dates stamped on rear free endpaper; "Longmeadow Cleaners" written under front flap; otherwise very good in a very good, first issue dust jacket with the photo credited to "Hank Krangler" and with a one-sentence biography of Kesey.
Spy Classic in Rare Variant Binding
366. LE CARRÉ, John. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. London: Gollancz, 1963. The first edition of Le CarrÉ's third book, the definitive Cold War novel, which brought a new level of realism to the genre of spy fiction. The title of this novel brought a new phrase into the language, and its realism helped define that which was being rejected by both the counterculture and the radical political movements of the time--the fixed world view, polarized between Communism and the West, and fraught with the imminent possibility of nuclear war. This copy is in a variant brown cloth binding. Page edges foxed; else a near fine copy in about near fine jacket with some spotting to the white rear panel and one spot to the front. Although we have handled this book many times, and seen many other copies, we have never seen or heard of another copy in this variant binding. Scarce variant of this important novel.
367. LEE, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott (1960). The advance reading copy of the author's first and only book, a huge bestseller which was reprinted dozens of times upon publication, won the Pulitzer Prize, was made into an Academy Award-winning movie and has sold literally millions of copies in the decades since, never going out of print. Coming at the end of the decade that brought civil rights into the headlines for the first time, Lee's novel helped prime a generation for an intolerance of racism and captured the moral climate of the moment when the Civil Rights movement became a national, and multi-racial effort. Spine creased; small surface and edge chips and soiling to white wrappers. About very good.
Uncorrected Proof of a Feminist Literary Classic
368. LESSING, Doris. The Golden Notebook. London: Michael Joseph (1962). The uncorrected proof copy of one of the most important novels by a woman in the past fifty years, which helped define the issues confronting the Women's Movement, before there was such a movement. A relatively small number of literary novels had great impact on the youth movement of the 1960s, and this was one of the most dramatically influential in defining a budding feminist consciousness. Ink markings on last page. Spine creased from reading. Overall, about very good in a moderately chipped proof dust jacket, which has been strengthened and repaired with tape internally. A fragile, extremely rare state of an important book.
Rare Proof Copy of Pseudonymously Published Edition
369. PLATH, Sylvia. "LUCAS, Victoria." The Bell Jar. London: Heinemann (1962). The uncorrected proof copy of her pseudonymously published first novel. Plath committed suicide barely a month after the publication of this novel in England and it was not published in the U.S. for nearly a decade. By that time it had become an underground classic, one of the most influential books of a generation, and Plath herself a martyred heroine in the eyes of the nascent women's movement. Plath published pseudonymously in hopes of avoiding the consequences of being recognized by her friends and neighbors, and their recognizing themselves in her book. The Bell Jar is largely autobiographical, and deals with a young woman who feels herself alienated from others and from the world--and thus ultimately from herself--as though she were living her life within a glass "bell jar." The book's clearcut exposition of its heroine's pain and her attempted suicides was reinforced by its author's actual suicide, the two factors combining to establish the novel firmly as a contemporary classic of the literature of women's oppression. Copies of the first edition itself are very scarce; proof copies of this book are virtually unheard of. The spine is mildly creased and tanned; about a near fine copy in wrappers. A modern rarity and a high spot of postwar literature.
370. PYNCHON, Thomas. V. London: Cape (1963). The first British edition of his first book, winner of the Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel of the year, and the debut of one of the most important American writers of the postwar era. With his elaborate inventiveness, his labyrinthine plots and his sometimes paranoid comic sense, Pynchon became the "postmodern" standard against whom all writers since are measured and to whom they are compared. Pynchon was a student at Cornell in the late 1950s, when Richard Fariña was there, and admired Fariña greatly. His writings in the Sixties and early Seventies bore a noted political edge, and Pynchon's books came to be associated with the social and political movements among the young during the Sixties, in particular his sense of paranoia and offbeat sense of humor. A noted recluse, he has let his writing speak for him, and his first three novels, at least, have come to be postwar American classics, each of them winning one or more of the major literary awards given out in this country. Mild, even fading to top stain; very near fine in like, price-clipped dust jacket with faint traces of a pen mark on the front panel. A very attractive, nearly pristine copy, despite the small flaws mentioned.
371. PYNCHON, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. Philadelphia: Lippincott (1966). Pynchon's second novel, winner of the Richard and Hilda Rosenthal Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the most overtly political, and paranoid, of Pynchon's novels. Chosen by David Pringle as one of the hundred best novels of Modern Fantasy. Penciled owner name on half-title; near fine in a dust jacket with light chipping to the crown and a small split at the middle of the rear flap fold; else near fine. With publisher's complimentary card laid in.
372. PYNCHON, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow. NY: Viking (1973). Uncorrected proof copy of Pynchon's landmark third novel, winner of the National Book Award as well as the William Dean Howells Medal for the best work of fiction by an American over a five-year span. Gravity's Rainbow became the benchmark for postmodern American fiction upon publication and secured its mysterious and reclusive author's place in the postwar American literary pantheon. It is also widely considered the culminating novel of the Sixties--the one which encapsulates and sums up the postwar events that resulted in the countercultural rejection of mainstream society and the quest for a believable alternative view of the times and, by extension, of human possibility. Not only have Pynchon's identity and whereabouts remained mysterious, but his publications have increasingly tended to be well-guarded secrets up to the moment of publication. For a number of years it was reported that no proofs of Gravity's Rainbow had been done, with Viking itself reportedly having confirmed that; however, in the last decade a dozen or so examples of this massive (760 pages) proof have shown up on the market. This copy has been read and bears the reviewer's marks in the text and on the rear cover; the spine is dulled from blue to gray; the copy shows moderate overall wear; still very good.
373. -. Same title, the trade edition. Near fine in dust jacket.
374. ROBBINS, Tom. Another Roadside Attraction. Garden City: Doubleday, 1971. The author's first novel, one of a handful of contemporary novels--among them Gabriel García MÁrquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude--that became bestsellers slowly, by word of mouth, primarily on college campuses, long after the paperback editions came out. Never reprinted in hardcover in the U.S., but never out of print in paperback, this was one of the few successful literary novels to feature counterculture characters, psychedelic drugs, and metaphysical speculations. Robbins gained a cult following that mushroomed when his second book, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, was published, and he is now one of the most popular novelists of his generation. This is a very near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing at the corners and extremities.
375. -. Same title, the first British edition (London: W.H. Allen, 1973). Perfectbound. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with a couple of slight nicks to the crown. The jacket differs dramatically from that of the American edition.
376. TOLKIEN, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1954-56). The first American editions of this trilogy, consisting of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The Lord of the Rings became a huge "underground" bestseller in the Sixties when the first paperback edition of it was brought out, unauthorized, by Ace Books in an edition that--partly because it was unauthorized and didn't pay royalties--was cheap, and affordable by the students and other young people that became its primary market. The fact that the third volume of this edition was printed in England, and left off American copyright notice, was what allowed the unauthorized edition to be printed. With its elaborately imagined alternative worlds and creatures, Tolkien's trilogy became an essential volume for the counterculture: communes were named after locations in Middle Earth; hippies named their children, or renamed themselves, after the characters; and the overall plot--involving a world of wizards and magicians, and a Ring of Power that gave access to a wisdom beyond the capacity of mortal creatures to harness--provided a powerful alternate metaphor for a world view that had rejected the mainstream--i.e., modern, industrial society--and was experimenting with various alternatives, including the "power" and "wisdom" unleashed by the alternate states of consciousness achieved under the influence of powerful psychedelic drugs. As much as any fiction of the time, The Lord of the Rings provided a "lingua franca" for the counterculture, and place names, characters and other references drawn from it were instantly recognizable, even among strangers. Thus, despite being published a decade earlier, it should rightly be viewed as one of the key texts of the Sixties. Volume One has a price-clipped jacket; Volume Two has initials written under the front flap; Volume Three has an owner name; otherwise this is a near fine set in very good, lightly sunned dust jackets with modest edgewear including a couple of small edge chips. Each volume has the fold-out map in the rear intact. A nice set of this fantasy classic.