Kerouac, Jack

Maggie Cassidy

New York, NY: The Hearst Corporation: Avon Books Division, 1959. First Edition. Softcover. "Once again Jack Kerouac's gift for mirroring the sense and essence of an era, for catching the breathing moments of life, his uncanny ear for truth- all is richly revealed in this unique and nostalgic novel of a boy's first experience in love...of his exhilarating and bewildered search for the unawakened man still hidden behind the trembling, curious eyes of childhood." (back cover) After the success of On the Road in 1957, myriad publishers scrambled to add a Kerouac title to their catalogs. As a result, the mass of works that Kerouac had been quite literally carrying around in his rucksack for almost an entire decade were brought to light (albeit in "castrated" forms, to use his description of On the Road's first publication). Maggie Cassidy was one of those books, & is an essential Kerouac work for any reader who wants to truly understand the changing tone & trajectory of Kerouac's literary aims and novelistic imagination. As with all his works, this is a fictionalized memoir, in this case of his teenage years in Lowell, Massachusetts, & his first adolescent crush. Offered here is the very first edition, first printing, a softcover original. According to Ann Charters' definitive bibliography: "In editions after the first printing of the Avon paperback, the title page is a single page instead of a double page spread. Facing title page is printed "Critical Praise for Maggie Cassidy." (A7(a), pgs. 28-29) This copy has the double spread & all other points referred to in Charters. An essential primary collectible in the Kerouac canon, in near-fine condition as almost always with this vintage, cheaply produced but exemplary rarity: Mild-to-moderate rubbing, creasing & scratching of front, back covers & spine; thin vertical lines of slight paper-loss revealing white at same esp. across front cover near right edge; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases at all edges & corners; loosening of glue at spine but with no loosening or detachment of any page leaves; mild rubbing & discoloration to edges of text block. Interior very fine except for light, short creasing at corners of some page leaves esp. lower corners of pgs. 167-170 where they had been folded; inevitable moderate browning esp. at blank margins of old pulp-quality page leaves. Near Fine. [Item #3347]

Price: $250.00