Roth, Philip

The Great American Novel

New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973. First Book Club Edition. Hardcover. "The Great American Novel is the story of the Ruppert Mundys, the only homeless big-league baseball team in American history, whose wretched players wander like refugees from one Patriot League city to the next during World War Two, dropping deeper and deeper into humiliation, despair, and last place. In the end, this team- which in its heyday had won three consecutive World Series crowns for its patriarchal owner Glorious Mundy- is destroyed, a sacrificial victim of the American mania for Success and phobia of Failure." (from front flap) The seventh published work of Philip Roth (1933-2018), the great, award-winning & prolific Jewish-American author whose writings have been enshrined in the Library of America series (since during his lifetime, a particular honor) along with his canonical contemporaries Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud et al. While not among Roth's best-known or acclaimed novels (despite its bombastic title), this exemplary work brims with his signature hilarity & bitingly sharp social commentary, & is a sort of cult-favorite among his vast readership. Offered here is the first book club edition, hardcover in unclipped dust jacket (with no price & "Book Club/ Edition" printed on front flap). A quality production by the same venerable publisher of the first trade edition, actually quite rare in this version. An essential component in the glorious, side-splitting & profound Roth oeuvre, in an interestingly collectible form. Book in relatively near-fine condition with very light rubbing to front, back covers & spine (with gilt letters, graphics on spine & front cover intact & only slightly dulled); minor wear & some tiny bumps at edges & corners of same incl. tiny areas with loss of dark blue cloth surface color; faint vertical crease across spine; bending of same slightly toward front; mild rubbing, browning & spotting to side & lower edges of text block (the former untrimmed as issued); moderate rubbing, fading & some significant loss of blue dye at upper edge of same. Interior very fine with only a hint of browning to blank margins/edges of page leaves; miniscule bleeding of spots noted above onto upper edges of a few of same; tiny bumps at corners of a few of same. Dust jacket good-to-near-fine with moderate rubbing, browning, faint scratching to front, back covers, spine & flaps; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases & chips at edges & corners of same with very slight loss of paper esp. at upper spine-edge, corners; moderate-to-significant loss of blue color esp. of "The" at front cover (apparently from sticker removal with a bit of rectangular residue therefrom). Near Fine / Good- Near Fine. [Item #5221]

Price: $70.00