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THE SHELTERING SKY
by Bowles, Paul
- Used
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Very good plus in very good jacket.
- Seller
-
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
(New York): New Directions, 1949. Very good plus in very good jacket.. Inscribed first US edition of Bowles's first novel, the grim and enduring twentieth-century classic of alienated Americans wandering through North Africa towards destruction. Bowles's masterpiece, often praised as pitiless and dazzling, like the sun - beautiful, but not good for the eyes - was written in several Algerian hotel bedrooms over a period of nine months. "My idea was that the people would keep moving into the desert," he explained to Jay McInerney, "that one would get ill and die, and at that point it would write itself." Once completed, Bowles sent the book to Doubleday, who didn't want it: "They said, 'We asked for a novel.' They didn't consider it a novel." New Directions was happy to publish it for "a postwar reading public that was still shockable" (Theroux), and as a reading public loves to be shocked, it became a bestseller. 8'' x 5.25''. Original tan cloth. In original unclipped ($2.75) dust jacket by Alvin Lustig. 318 pages. Inscribed by Bowles on half title. Minor edgewear to boards, faint soil to edges of text block. Jacket with a couple nicks and a few small closed tears, some soil to rear panel, spine toned.
Synopsis
In this classic work of psychological terror, Paul Bowles examines the ways in which Americans apprehend an alien culture--and the ways in which their incomprehension destroys them. The story of three American travelers adrift in the cities and deserts of North Africa, The Sheltering Sky is at once merciless and heartbreaking in its compassion. It etches the limits of human reason and intelligence--perhaps even the limits of human life --when they touch the unfathomable emptiness and impassive cruelty of the desert. (via-GoodReads)
Reviews
On Nov 14 2012, Alicekisch said:
This book is an important novel!
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Details
- Bookseller
- Type Punch Matrix
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 50941
- Title
- THE SHELTERING SKY
- Author
- Bowles, Paul
- Book Condition
- Used - Very good plus in very good jacket.
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- New Directions
- Place of Publication
- (New York)
- Date Published
- 1949
- Keywords
- 20th century,Post-WWII,1940s,Africa (Northern),Modernism,Travel
Terms of Sale
Type Punch Matrix
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About the Seller
Type Punch Matrix
Biblio member since 2020
Silver Spring, Maryland
About Type Punch Matrix
Type Punch Matrix is a rare book firm founded by Rebecca Romney and Brian Cassidy. TPM is a member firm of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and upholds their Code of Ethics.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Inscribed
- When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Text Block
- Most simply the inside pages of a book. More precisely, the block of paper formed by the cut and stacked pages of a book....
- Half Title
- The blank front page which appears just prior to the title page, and typically contains only the title of the book, although, at...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
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