Tristessa (Two Editions)First Edition

Tristessa (Two Editions)

ISBN: 0140168117
New York, NY: The Hearst Corporation, Avon Book Division; Penguin Books USA Inc., 1960; 1992. First Edition; Later Printing. Softcovers. "Jack Kerouac has done it again- here is a new novel, once more unlike any you have ever read before. He is an author of astonishing virtuosity. In spinning out this, his wildest tale of love, he says completely new and important things about the real tragedy of narcotics and prostitution." (back cover of first edition) The short novel by Jack Kerouac, Founding Father of the Beat Generation. As with all his works, this is a romantically, impressionistically fictionalized memoir based on his actual life experiences, in this case his encounters with a junkie-prostitute woman in Mexico whose real name was Esperanza ("hope" in Spanish), which he changed to Tristessa (close to the Spanish word for "sadness"). Among the characters in this novel are "Old Bull Gaines," Based on Bill Garver, an expatriate American junkie who was portrayed by William S. Burroughs, another of Garver's acquaintances, as "Bill Gaines" in Naked Lunch & other works. WSB himself appears as "Old Bull Lee" in On the Road, & in various guises in many of Kerouac's other works. Offered here are two versions of Tristessa: (1) First edition, presumed first printing (with all points noted in Charters, A12(a), pg. 35), a softcover original published as "An Avon Original" during 1960 with a famously garish, sensationalistic front cover illustration & touted as "A new and hauntingly different novel about a morphine-racked prostitute" thereon. (2) Later edition, later (approximately sixth) printing, with different format & graphics, trade-size softcover published by Penguin Books circa 1992. Allen Ginsberg is quoted on back cover of this edition: "This entire novel Tristessa's a narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a chihuahua dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady, first in their crowded bedroom, then out to drunken streets, taco stands, & pads at dawn in Mexico City slums." A quintessential classic in the Kerouac Canon, in both its collectibly original (& very delicate) form & convenient reading format- a nice two-for-one bundle. (1) in all-too-commonly fair-to-good condition with moderate rubbing to front, back covers & spine; mild wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; one long, angled faint crease at lower area of front cover hardly effecting illustration; closed tears at spine & spine-front cover edge; moderate rubbing, browning, fading & scratching to yellow-dyed edges of text block. Interior relatively good with moderate browning esp. at blank margins of pulp-quality page leaves; tiny bumps at corners of some of same; many of same are quite loose & even separated from spine, a condition unfortunately common to many available copies of this sixty year old small-format mass market edition. Nevertheless, completely intact & presentable, & should be preserved untouched while reading & handling (2), in very fine condition with only very light wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; previous seller's barcode-sticker over printed barcode near lower right corner of back cover. Interior very fine with only tiny bumps at corners of a few page leaves. Fair-Good; Very fine. [Item #3381]

Price: $75.00