ALGREN, Nelson - The Man with the Golden Arm

Greenwich, CT, Crest Book, 1964. Paperback. 12mo. Stiff pictorial wrappers. 365pp, (3pp ads). Good. Edgeworn and text block age toned, with front wrapper and some edges professionally, archivally strengthened. Housed in custom lavender cloth (to match front wrapper) clamshell case with with gilt-lettered black calf spine label. Decent first of this softbound edition of this National Book Award winner -- but with a great content inscription and signature in black ballpoint that extends over nine pages and amounts to an Autograph Letter Signed -- opening on the inside front wrapper and closing (with delightful multi-color cat sketch) on inside rear wrapper. "Dear Miss Grubbins," Algren begins. "It's good of you to let me know you enjoyed Donohue's book [Conversations with Nelson Algren]. I didn't know what he was up to when he came around with a tape-recorder -- a magazine interview was all he had in mind. When he later succeeded in getting a contract for it from a publisher I wanted to revise it so as to appear more, heroic, cleverer and better-dressed, but he didn't permit me to dress it up -- which is why, apparently the book is being respected. In fact, I was surprised that you found a copy of that old novel in the public library -- the Chicago library banned it when it was published. None of the others, so far as I know, is available there, although they keep moving in paperback." He then recommends some recent fiction: "If you're interested in good contemporary novels, I'd suggest Terry Southern's Magic Christian (paperback), Bruce Jay Friedman's Stern (paperback), Wm. Styron's Lie Down in Darkness (paperback) Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (paper), Thomas Berger's Little Big Man (not in paper yet), James Leigh's What Can You Do? (Just published), Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (about to be published), Wm. Humphrey: The Ordways (about to be published). Lay off James Baldwin's Another Country. He's a great essayist and a perfectly lousy novelist. Terry Southern's Candy is humorous. A very very good novel, that nobody noticed and no one has read, a better novel than anything published here in years, was put out a few years ago by McGraw-Hill. It never made paperback: A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul." And he closes off simply "Thank you for writing -- Algren." This superb letter is Algren at his frank, opinionated best, starting with nice original content about the creation of H.E. F. Donohue's 1965 interview collection before moving on to a quick summation of recent fiction releases -- many of which have stood the test of time and a few that haven't. The large cat drawing consists of black crayon outline infilled with orange, yellow, green and other hues. BRUCCOLI A 4.5.a. .

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