McMurtry, Larry

Anything for Billy

ISBN: 0671642685
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1988. First Printing. Hardcover. “‘The first time I met Billy he came walking out of a cloud. He had a pistol in each hand and a scared look on his rough young face. The cloud drifted in from the plains earlier in the morning and stopped over the Hidden Mountains, in the country of the Messy Apaches…’ So begins Larry McMurty’s novel about the life and times of Billy the Kid, legendary outlaw and gunman, who makes his first appearance here as a seventeen-year-old in a dirt black coat, with a reputation for violence that far exceeds his actual ferocity and a charm that may be a more potent weapon than his Colt—with which he is, to put it mildly, an indifferent marksman…” (Abridged from front-&-back flap copy). As the fulsome flap copy notes, “Anything for Billy” is the 1988 novel by the great Larry McMurtry, author of the Pulitizer Prize-winning “Lonesome Dove.” A most Thompsonian note is struck by the flap copy at its curiosity-piquing end, in which “the violent heart of the American Dream” is listed as a motivating theme of this title. A Publisher’s Weekly review called it McMurty’s “affectionate ode to dime novels […], a tale of random violence, unlikely romance, and quicksilver friendships…an old West, rip-roparing gamble with a tear in its eye,” — and with this summation, We at TMB agree. From the collection of Barbara (1935-2023) & Irving (1933-2018) Nusbaum - world travelers, connoisseurs, eminent collectors of art & books, and the dearly beloved late parents of our esteemed founder, Arthur S. Nusbaum. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket: First Edition, though not explicated as such on copyright page; First Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. Book in very fine condition, virtually as new with only mild-to-moderate shelf-wear, else pristine. Dust-jacket in very fine condition with only minute-to-moderate shelf-wear & a few enunciated bumps & instances of very faint bump-creasing to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge, else pristine. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #6104]

Price: $40.00