Selby Jr., Hubert (Jacobs, Brian)

Last Exit to Brooklyn

ISBN: 0802131379
New York, NY, USA: Grove Weidenfeld, 1988. First Edition Thus, Third Printing. Softcover. Inscribed, signed & dated by Hubert Selby Jr. to Brian Jacobs. "The first novel to articulate the rage and pain of life in "the other America," Last Exit to Brooklyn is a classic of postwar American writing. (Hubert Selby Jr.'s) searing portrait of the powerless, the homeless, the dispossessed, is as fiercely and frighteningly apposite today as when it was first published..." (from back cover) The acclaimed & still-controversial novel by Hubert Selby Jr. (1928-2004), the great writer who depicted the sordid underbelly of urban society & its denizens with nightmarishly sharp but compassionate & empathetic realism. Some critics look back on this as "The Last Beat Novel" in American letters. The Brooklyn it depicts is certainly not the preciously gentrified & affluent hipster haven of today. This volume was the basis for the notable film version of 1989 starring Stephen Lang & Jennifer Jason Leigh. First published in 1964, we offer here a later first edition thus, the "First Evergreen Edition 1988" per copyright page, third printing as indicated by number sequence thereon. Trade-format softcover. At blank front endpaper/ recto first leaf, Selby has cursively hand-written, signed & dated in black ink: "Fuck You Harry/ &/ You Too Brian/ Love/ (signed) Cubby/ 7/14/94." The first line is a quote from the book, told to one of its main protagonists. "Cubby" was Selby's private nickname. "Brian," the recipient of this inscription, is Brian Jacobs (b. 1969), a most-distilnguished author, publisher & educator who attended the fabled Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado during the 1990s, where he was the student of its co-founders Anne Waldman & Allen Ginsberg- he was appointed by Ginsberg as his official assistant in the later period of his attendance. Jacobs has gone on to ever-greater heights as a True Beat Progeny, & we have been privileged to obtain his stellar collection, highlights of which including this are the exclusive focus of this group of New Arrivals. And so, this admittedly not-otherwise-particularly-rare copy is eminently & singularly collectible with this exemplary, irreverent yet warm & affectionate author-to-aspiring author quote, inscription, intimate signature & date by the great Hubert Selby Jr. Jacobs, our good friend & colleague who resides here in Ann Arbor, reminisced with us about his encounter with the legendary writer, describing him as a gentle man whose rather kindly appearance belied the ferocity of his classic novels. An amazing treasure. In relatively good-to-near-fine condition with mild-to-moderate rubbing, mostly faint scratching & light age-toning to front, back covers & spine; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases incl. minimal loss of surface paper to/from edges & corners of same; light rubbing, faint scratching, occasional small markings & a touch of age-toning to edges of text block, esp. lower edge. Interior fine with only slight age-toning to blank inner covers & page leaves, the latter chiefly at blank margins/edges; tiny bumps & small, faint creases at esp. lower corners of some leaves. Good-Near Fine. [Item #8576]

Price: $200.00