Jones, James

The Pistol

New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958. First Edition. Hardcover. " "When the first bombs lit at Wheeler Field on December 7, 1941, Pfc. Richard Mast was eating breakfast. He was also wearing a pistol..." Here, in the opening paragraph, James Jones sets forth the central issue of this new novel. Pfc. Richard Mast does manage to keep the pistol assigned to him for guard duty, and the struggle around it provides the pathos, savagery, and humor of the story. In the chaos of those first days and weeks of war...Every effort is made to get it away from Mast- by offers of money, by threats and cajolery, by theft and by violence. But he is obsessed by his need for the weapon: it becomes for him, and for the men around him, a symbol of personal salvation, for which any one of them will make any sacrifice." (from front & back flaps) A short novel by James Jones (1921-1977), the popular, award-winning American novelist. Not quite as well-known as Jones' longer bestsellers that were turned into blockbuster films, especially From Here to Eternity, this work nevertheless was critically acclaimed & quite literally packs a punch. It begins where the more famous Eternity ends, with the bombing attack on the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Japanese which heralded the USA's entry into the conflagration of World War II. Pfc. Mast's pistol becomes a coveted, symbolic object, of which he & his fellow soldiers become obsessed. Hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket (with $3.00 price printed on front flap, "A" on rear flap), first edition, first printing with "A-10.58[H]" stated on copyright page. This novel itself is a haunting story both realistic & allegorical, the better for being shorter & more succinct than some of Jones' other productions- & is noteworthy for its amusing, somewhat dyspeptic non-dedication (see image). Also see our item No. 4523. A compact & collectible Jones classic, in its rarest original form. Book in fine condition with mild wear, rubbing & fading to thin edges & corners of red-cloth front, back covers & spine; light fraying with very slight loss of cloth to upper spine-edge & corners; several faint, vertical wave-creases at spine (gilt lettering thereon only slightly dulled & completely intact); mild rubbing, browning & occasional spotting to upper edge of text block; much less at side & lower edges of same. Interior very fine with only slight rubbing, browning & spotting to blank paste-downs & endpapers; all page leaves virtually mint. Unrestored dust jacket relatively near-fine with mild rubbing, browning, scratching & faint creasing to front, back covers, spine & flaps; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases at thin edges & corners of same incl. very slight loss of paper to spine-edges & corners; moderate fading of red-color background, yellow lettering at spine; one small-to-medium closed tear at upper-right edge of back cover (blank background of author photograph); areas of tape repair to blank inner jacket at/near spine-edges & corners, lower edge of front cover (not substantially visible on outer jacket). Fine / Near Fine. [Item #4673]

Price: $100.00