Skip to content

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Click for full-size.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

by Carson McCullers

  • Used
  • Fine
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Fine/Fine
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Lake Huntington, New York, United States
Item Price
A$123.95
Or just A$111.56 with a
Bibliophiles Club Membership
A$5.42 Shipping to USA
Standard delivery: 5 to 14 days

More Shipping Options

Payment Methods Accepted

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • American Express
  • Discover
  • PayPal

About This Item

356 pp. Octavo, 6 x 8.5 in. This is an near perfect facsimile of the original June 4, 1940, publication of which, it is estimated, only 3000 were printed. The book, dust jacket, and slip case are in fine condition. The F.E.L. 3.5 x 7.5 in. info card is laid in. An archival cover has been added to the dust jacket.

Synopsis

Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the author’s first in her string of works that lift the voices of the outsiders. The debut novel tells the story of a deaf-mute man named John Singer, who lives in an unnamed mill town in Georgia in the late 1930s. Left alone after his close friend and roommate is sent away, Singer moves into a boarding house and soon becomes the confidant of four of the town’s mistfits. His new acquaintances include Mick Kelly, a spirited young girl from a poor family; Jake Blount, an alcoholic social reformer; Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, an idealistic black physician; and Biff Brannon, the childless owner of the local café that brought the group together. These five voices share a common cry of isolation, the novel’s principal theme. Thus, some understand the characters experiencing this shared isolation to be grotesque, a Southern Gothic literary term for elements — often exaggerated — in dissension of social and cultural formations. However, others argue that the work is far too rooted in realism to fit the aforementioned bill. Having quickly risen to the top of the bestseller lists in 1940, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was a literary sensation. Modern Library ranked the novel seventeenth on its list of the “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. It was also included in TIME’s “100 Best Novels” (since 1923 to 2005). A film adaptation was made in 1968, starring Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke, and Cicely Tyson. In March 2005, a stage adaptation premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia and began touring shortly thereafter, commissioned and produced by the Acting Company of New York City. And after being selected for Oprah’s Book Club in 2004, Houghton Mifflin, McCullers's publisher throughout her life, rushed out 700,000 copies of a new paperback edition. As a result, the 64-year-old novel was the No. 1 bestseller for a brief time in May of that year.

Read More: Identifying first editions of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Reviews

(Log in or Create an Account first!)

You’re rating the book as a work, not the seller or the specific copy you purchased!

Details

Bookseller
Veery Books US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
308055
Title
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Author
Carson McCullers
Format/Binding
First edition facsimile in illustrated slipcase
Book Condition
Used - Fine
Jacket Condition
Fine
Quantity Available
1
Edition
First Edition facsimile
Binding
Hardcover
Publisher
First Edition Library / Houston Mifflin Company
Place of Publication
Shelton Conn. / Boston
Date Published
nd / 1940
Pages
356
Size
8vo
Weight
0.00 lbs
Keywords
First Editions, Literature
Bookseller catalogs
First Editions; Literature;

Terms of Sale

Veery Books

30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.

About the Seller

Veery Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2010
Lake Huntington, New York

About Veery Books

Veery Books' specialties: (1) Music scores (Symphonic, Chamber, Choral, and Solo repertoire, Full conductor's scores and study scores and parts throughout the range of classical music, including rare or first editions), bibliographies, histories, biographies, auction catalogs, literature and ephemera related to classical music and classical composers and musicians. (2) American popular music from the early 19th century to the 1940s. (3) Poetry and literature with emphasis on American poetry and fiction. (4) Rare and unusual American imprints from the 19th century. (5) Bibliographies, Bookseller's catalogs, Auction catalogs for books, manuscripts, ephemera, prints, and art. Veery Books strives to provide accurate bibliographic and condition descriptions including photographs for each offering and where possible to offer quotations or unusual facts about the offering. Veery Books will be happy to assist you in your book search and welcomes inquiries regarding thousands of yet uncatalogued musical scores, bookseller's and auction catalogs.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Octavo
Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Facsimile
An exact copy of an original work. In books, it refers to a copy or reproduction, as accurate as possible, of an original...
Slip Case
A protective sleeve, often made of decorative cardboard or leather which houses a book. It is open on one end, so as to allow...
Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...

Frequently asked questions

This Book’s Categories

tracking-