[Item #4749] The Bamboo Bed. William Eastlake.
The Bamboo Bed
The Bamboo Bed
The Bamboo Bed
The Bamboo Bed

The Bamboo Bed

New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1969. First Printing. Hardcover. “Madame Dieudonne arose, stark and stripped, in her underground villa at 0600 as was her wont, turned on the shortwave radio and heard the report from Laos that Captain Clancy was dead, and then she walked, still naked, to her jewel box, removed a small, black, heavy object, raised it to her head and blew her pretty French brains out. Pas vrai. Not true. That’s the way the papers had it, but they did not get it right. They never do. The newspapers seldom get anything right because they are not creative. Life is an art.” (pg. 7) So reads the no-holds-barred beginning of William Eastlake’s (1917-1997) 1969 novel, “The Bamboo Bed.” The geopolitical struggles which occupied the America into which this book was published profoundly inform the plot line of this novel—set as it is in Vietnam, and reflecting (as it does) on “…the horrors and grim humors of war,” as the front flap copy notes. Though Eastlake was born to British parents in Brooklyn, NY in 1917, his 'origin story' as a novelist begins in the early 1940s with his employment at the Stanley Rose Bookstore in Los Angeles, California. The Stanley Rose Bookstore was no ordinary bookstore--it was a literary hangout for some of the greatest fiction novelists of the twentieth century. It was a place where the likes of Nathanael West, William Saroyan, John Steinbeck and their contemporaries could often be found kibitzing between the shelves. In addition to this, Eastlake notably embarked upon a pilgrimage to visit William Faulkner in 1943; a fitting capstone to Eastlake's legendary orbit of associations--surely the stuff of dreams for any aspiring fiction writer of that era. Though not read as often as he once was, Eastlake maintains a fanbase of dedicated readers and collectors convinced of his underappreciated mastery of prose fiction to this day. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket; a First Printing, as noted on copyright page. Book in very fine condition with only slightest shelf-wear to fine-edges; tiny instance of bumping-chipping to bottom right hand corner of front cover; corresponding (and lesser) tiny instance present at lower left-hand corner of back cover. Dust-jacket in near fine condition with moderate-to-pronounced shelf-wear, crinkling, tiny-to-small bumps & moderate-to-pronounced rubbing to fine-edges of front, back covers & spine; a few minute instances of rubbing, light scuffing to back cover; tiny bump-crease present at top right-hand corner of interior front flap; corresponding, similar bump-crease & closed tear to top left-hand corner of interior back flap. Very Fine / Near Fine. [Item #4749]

Price: $60.00

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