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Tropic of Cancer
by MILLER, Henry (1891-1980)
- Used
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: John Calder, 1963. [Modern Literature] SIGNED FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.[6] 318. SIGNED by the author in black ink to title page; possibly a secretarial hand. Publisher's grey cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the blue dust-jacket, priced at 25s. Large blue ink ownership to fly-leaf. Toning and spotting to edges and endpapers. Boards slightly bowed, with some toning to spine and wear to edges. Jacket heavily worn to edges, with creases, closed tears, and heavy chipping. Good. A classic account of an American writer's life in Paris, first published there in 1934, but not officially published in the US and the UK until 1961 and 1963 due to censorship.
Synopsis
Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer is one of the most notoriously and frequently censored books in the history of American literature. In a combination of autobiography and fiction, the novel centers of Miller’s own life as a struggling writer in Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Tropic of Cancer is written in the first person and lacks linear organization, two of Miller’s most favored techniques. Some chapters are narratives about Miller’s friends and workplaces, and others are stream-of-consciousness-style reflections, but all of the chapters touch on the sexual exploits and general low-life ruthlessness in which the author had engaged at the time. Tropic of Cancer was first published by Obelisk Press, a French publisher of soft pornography, in Paris in 1934. Shortly thereafter, the novel was banned in the US and later tried for charges of obscenity, a trial that challenged American pornography laws at the time. In 1961, the ban of Tropic of Cancer was lifted, and later that year, Grove Press published the first US edition of the novel, but only after the firm’s Barney Rosset offered Miller a sizeable advance and promised to defend the author in any future legal battles regarding the publication. Grove Press’s edition of Tropic of Cancer sold over 1 million copies by the end of 1961… and was the subject of about 60 lawsuits as well, one of which involved the American Civil Liberties Union. All of this hullabaloo makes one wonder what the reactions might have been if Miller had decided to go with the novel’s working title, Crazy Cock — which was, ironically, far more modest than the published version. Regardless, the novel’s 1970 film adaptation, directed by Joseph Strick, received an X rating (meaning no one 17 and under admitted). Today, Tropic of Cancer finds itself ranked 50th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century and 59th on The Guardian’s list of the 100 best novels.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Adrian Harrington Rare Books
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 62254
- Title
- Tropic of Cancer
- Author
- MILLER, Henry (1891-1980)
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- London: John Calder, 1963
- Bookseller catalogs
- LITERATURE;
Terms of Sale
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About the Seller
Adrian Harrington Rare Books
Biblio member since 2005
Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent
About Adrian Harrington Rare Books
Adrian Harrington began trading in 1971, as part of Harrington Brothers in the Chelsea Antiques Market on London's fashionable King's Road. He moved to Kensington Church Street in 1997, and in 2014 Adrian relocated to the historic Hall's Bookshop in Royal Tunbridge Wells, occupying the first floor of this iconic building near The Pantiles area of the town. Hall's remains on the ground floor offering an exceptional range of quality used books.Adrian Harrington Rare Books deal in a wide selection of literature, modern first editions, leather bound library sets, children's and illustrated books, and fine and rare antiquarian and old books in all fields. We also offer a full and expert bookbinding and restoration service.Award-winning Ian Fleming Bibliographer Jon Gilbert curates our world-class stock of James Bond material, including first edition novels, film posters, original scripts and associated ephemera.We are always interested in buying quality books in our subject areas, from individual titles to complete collections.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Fly-Leaf
- ...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- Chipping
- A defect in which small pieces are missing from the edges; fraying or small pieces of paper missing the edge of a paperback, or...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
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