Boyle, Kay; Jong, Erica; Miller, Henry; Sanchez, Thomas

Four Visions of America

ISBN: 0884961265
Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1977. First Trade Edition. Hardcover. "JONG, SANCHEZ, BOYLE, MILLER, as disparate a crew as America is a country, have created a crashing concert of voices that could bring down Mt. Rushmore. Their voices are territorial, separated by emotional gorges and visionary peaks, and combining to make coherent music, not the modulations of a chamber group, but a struggling song to fill the sky. Don't expect gentle reassurance. All four documents, written especially for this book, are loaded. Each detonates in its own way, each author writing of what he or she finds most compelling." (from front flap) Four provocative essays by four legendary American writers. In order: "Report from Lock-Up" by Kay Boyle (1902-1992), the acclaimed & award-winning author & activist; "The Real Cowboys and Indians" by Thomas Sanchez (b. 1943), the Spanish-Portuguese descended novelist; East-West Blues: A New Yorker Goes West" by Erica Jong (b. 1942), the pioneeringly explicit feminist author; & last-but-not-least "A Nation of Lunatics" by Henry Miller (1891-1980), the great author & artist whose earlier works were an influential precedent for the Beat Generation, especially its Founding Father Jack Kerouac. Four different, even clashing perspectives on the essence of the USA by several generations' worth of its most fearlessly innovative writers. The only instance that we know of when these four disparate-but-kindred figures were gathered together. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first trade hardcover edition (published simultaneously with a softcover edition per copyright page, & with a limited numbered/signed edition per colophon), first printing, though neither explicated as such at copyright page. A most interesting & insightful literary collectible in its rarest original trade form. Book in fine condition with slight rubbing, mild-to-moderate fading & browning esp. at/near edges & corners of front, back covers & spine (silver-gilt lettering & graphics at red cloth spine quite bright & intact); a bit of wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; very light rubbing, browning & occasional spotting to edges of text block. Interior fine with series of numbers & letter in black ink (from previous seller or owner?) near upper edge of blank white front endpaper; slight browning to same; several spots at blank rear endpaper; all other page leaves & blank paste-downs appear substantially mint. Dust jacket relatively near-fine with mild-to-moderate rubbing, light creasing & scratching to bright silver-backgrounded front, back covers, spine & flaps; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; loss of paper, surface paper at/nearest spine-edges & corners. Fine / Near Fine. [Item #5720]

Price: $30.00