Bowles, Paul

Let It Come Down

New York, NY: Random House, 1952. First Edition. Hardcover. "To Tangier, outpost of unrestrained freedom, morass of ruthless greed and opportunism, comes a young American, Nelson Dyar. Fed up with his job in a New York bank, he has accepted a position in this swarming Moroccan city where nationals of many countries mingle in a frenzy of smuggling, espionage, vice of every description. Quickly caught up in the stream of evil, Dyar discovers that the new life he seeks can be attained only by renouncing whatever loyalty he has for ethical principles. He finds, too, that casting all morality to the four winds is easy and spiritually beneficial in that it awakens him to new points of view. With the help of men and women whose varying states of depravity apparently have been achieved only after years of effort, he learns that each successive violation of a social taboo brings him nearer to self-knowledge." (from front flap) The third published work & second novel of Paul Bowles (1910-1999), the canonical American-expatriate author, composer & true Figure of Legend. Bowles, with his equally if differently legendary wife Jane, lived & worked in Tangier for most of his life, beginning when it was a notorious "International Zone" (the very title of the first chapter here), a cauldron of intrigue & decadence (back when that latter term could still be distinguished from "normal" society). Bowles became an elder statesman among the expatriate avant-garde writers who resided or passed through Tangier in its Interzone heyday, & he was a kindred friend-colleague of William S. Burroughs, along with other primary members of the Beat Generation. Offered here is the first American edition, hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket with $3.50 price printed on front flap, first printing as stated on copyright page. A spine-tingling classic by the singularly sinister & brilliant Paul Bowles, whose works (along with those of Jane) are now honored with inclusion in the Library of America series; an essential Bowles collectible in its rarest original form. Book in relatively quite fine condition with only a bit of rubbing, mild fading & browning esp. at/near edges of front, back covers & spine (all letters, graphics & affixed image at spine & front grey cloth portion of front cover completely bright & intact); light wear, browning & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same; light rubbing, browning to side & lower edges of text block; moderate fading, rubbing & light spotting, scratching to grey/orange dyed upper edge of same. Interior fine with moderate browning, fading to blank light-green paste-downs & endpapers; one very small partially closed tear-puncture at lower-mid edge between front paste-down & endpaper; mild browning mostly to blank margins/edges of page leaves. Dust jacket fine with light rubbing, fading, browning & occasional faint scratching to front, back covers, spine & flaps; mild wear incl. areas of creasing with very slight loss of surface paper at/nearest edges & corners of same esp. lower edge of front cover. Fine / Fine. [Item #5295]

Price: $400.00