March, Joseph Moncure (Spiegelman, Art)

The Wild Party

ISBN: 0330336568
London, England: Picador, 1994. First UK Edition Thus. Hardcover. "Art Spiegelman's sinister and witty black-and-white drawings give charged new life to Joseph Moncure March's Wild Party, a lost classic from 1928. The inventive and varied page designs offer perfect counterpoint to the staccato tempo of this hard-boiled jazz-age tragedy told in syncopated rhyming couplets. Here is a poem that can make even readers with no time for poetry stop dead in their tracks. Once read, large shards of this story of one night of debauchery will become permanently lodged in the brain." (from front flap) The notorious risqué relic of the Roaring Twenties by Joseph Moncure March (1899-1977), the great American poet, author & screenwriter who was briefly the first managing editor of the New Yorker when it was first published in 1925, & who then went on to create this & his other narrative poem The Set-Up, both first published in 1928. The Wild Party was given new life & notoriety in this 1994 edition, extensively illustrated by Art Spiegelman (b. 1948), the acclaimed Jewish-American artist most famous for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Holocaust memoir- graphic novel Maus (1991). Here is the first UK edition thus of this most-popular revived & enhanced version of The Wild Party, Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, published the same year (1994) as the first American edition, first printing as indicated by number sequence on copyright page. A collectible version of this highly recommended rarity. Book in fine condition with very slight rubbing, faint scratching & a few small, shallow, non-penetrating indentations to front, back covers & spine (front board letters & illustration, spine letters quite bright & intact); a touch of wear at edges & corners of same; one very small spot-stain at/near blank grey cloth lower right spine/front cover corner; moderate bend of spine toward front; a bit of rubbing, browning to edges of text block. Interior very fine with only mild browning at/near mostly blank edges of page leaves. Dust jacket relatively good-to-near-fine with mild rubbing, scratching & a few small, shallow, non-penetrating indentations to front, back covers, spine & flaps; very slight wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; thin areas of spot-(water?)staining at upper edges of front cover, spine & front flap most manifest at blank inner surfaces; same at lower spine- front cover edge; one small, circular area with residue from sticker removal at blank area near upper right corner of front cover. Fine / Good- Near Fine. [Item #5553]

Price: $50.00 save 10% $45.00