People of the Streets

London: Jonathan Cape, 1968. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. First edition, first printing. Hardback in dustwrapper. 20 × 13.5cm, 256pp. People of the Streets was Tony Parker's sixth book, for which he spent a year approaching and interviewing people in London who were living their daily lives on street corners, along gutters or in subways. With his usual skill he coaxed them out of their natural reticence, born of solitude, into an unfamiliar but hugely illuminating spontaneity. With a superb dustwrapper design, and black & white illustrations by Anthony Colbert, seven characters tell their story in this book: Charles Turner, a frail, knowledgeable artist too independent to claim National Assistance; John Robertson, car-washer & veteran wino; Clare Jones, a policeman's daughter who sells ties from a suitcase; Jimmy Bolton, a street musician who takes LSD; Billy Costello, only 24 and already a derelict; Alice Anderson, a 'Paper Lady' brought up in an orphanage and widowed twice, and Michael O'Neill, a nightwatchman now crippled who says "There's not much to choose between how I am now and being dead". Condition: The book itself is in very good condition. The dustwrapper is a chipped and a but worn to the edges but essentially in good order.