Hawkes, John

The Cannibal

New York, NY: New Directions Books, 1949. First Edition. Hardcover. "With a feeling of real excitement the editors of Direction present, in The Cannibal, the first novel of a new American writer of extraordinary promise...The Cannibal is a story of Germany, but of a fantastic and hallucinated Germany, something half-way between nightmare and myth. The action is set in two different periods- 1914 and 1945- and we follow the lives of Stella, a nightclub singer, later to become a boarding house owner known as Madame Snow; of Jutta, her sister; of Zizendorf, her sister's lover and leader of a new political movement; and of a single American soldier on a motorcycle symbolically left to supervise the whole of a changing, tumultuous, and horrible Germany." (from front flap) The first published novel by John Hawkes (1925-1998), the acclaimed & influential author who pioneered the postmodern movement in American literature. With an enthusiastic introduction by Albert J. Guerard (1914-2000), the prolific American writer, critic & academician. Small-format hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first edition, first printing as indicated by grey cloth-textured paper cover boards & spine. The thirteenth number in the "Direction" series published by James Laughlin's New Directions imprint, which included works by Guerard, Vladimir Nabokov, Boris Pasternak & others as listed opposite title page. The earliest Hawkes collectible in its rarest form. Book in fine condition with very slight rubbing & browning to front, back covers & spine; mild-to-moderate wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same incl. small areas with loss of grey surface esp. at spine-edges & corners; mild rubbing, browning & occasional light scratching & spotting to edges of text block; moderate fading to grey-dyed upper edge of same. Interior fine with mild browning mostly to blank margins of page leaves, paste-downs & endpapers; miniscule bumps at mostly upper corners of some page leaves, side edges of a few of same. Unrestored dust jacket relatively near-fine with mild-to-moderate rubbing, light creasing & small areas of spot-staining to front, esp. back covers & spine; mild-to-moderate wear, some tiny bumps & several mostly very short, closed tears at edges & corners of same & flaps esp. spine-edges & corners incl. slight loss of paper. Fine / Near Fine. [Item #4450]

Price: $150.00