Southern, Terry; Hoffenberg, Mason

Candy

New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1964. First American Edition. Hardcover. "Candy Christian encounters her first misadventures in this best of all possible worlds at the hands of Professor Mephesto, her college ethics teacher, and thence begins a series of picaresque travels which take her into various places and encounters...Candy carries most of the absurdities of our time to their logical conclusions. Its targets, literary and otherwise, are many: the medical world; spiritualism, evangelism, and Zen; television; Greenwich Village bohemians; sex and psychoanalysis." (from front flap) The infamous, legendary novel by Terry Southern (1924-1995), the acclaimed Beat-&-Beyond novelist & screenwriter; & Mason Hoffenberg (1922-1986), Southern's friend known chiefly for this one collaboration. First published six years earlier (1958) in France under a pseudonym by Maurice Girodias' Olympia Press in its notorious & all-important Travelers' Companion Series, offered here is the first American edition, hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first printing to the best of our knowledge based on an exhaustive list of points we have learned that include $5.00 price on front flap, number reference "0464" thereon near lower right corner, James Jones' (rather than Nelson Algren's) blurb on back cover of dust jacket, no statement of printing on copyright page (as noted on later printings) etc. This very popular, latter-day sexy & doubly satirical take on Voltaire's Candide was the basis for a schlocky yet star-studded 1968 film which has become a cult classic. We should note that Southern was a friend & colleague of William S. Burroughs, the Patron Saint of Third Mind Books, & appears in "Burroughs," Howard Brookner's great documentary of WSB. A cornerstone collectible in the Southern & general countercultural canon. Book in very fine condition with very light wear & moderate fading at thin edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; light browning & sparse spotting to side edge of text block (uncut as issued); moderate fading to red-dyed upper edge of same. Interior very fine with only mild fading at margins of blank red paste-downs & endpapers; otherwise virtually mint. Unrestored dust jacket relatively good-to-near-fine with mild rubbing, scratching & slight browning to front, back covers, spine & flaps; mild wear, tiny bumps, creases & a few very short, mostly closed tears at edges & corners of same esp. spine-edges & corners with very slight loss of paper; one short (appx. 1"), closed tear at upper left edge & corner of back cover. Very Fine / Good- Near Fine. [Item #4470]

Price: $150.00