SUNRISE WITH SEAMONSTERS: TRAVELS & DISCOVERIES 1964-1984 - INSCRIBED TO V.S. NAIPAUL

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985. First Edition. Superb association copy of this key volume of Theroux's travel writing, inscribed to Nobel Prize-winner V.S. Naipaul. Among the many pieces here, Theroux includes the story of how he met Naipaul in 1966, while working as a lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda (pp.91-100) - the beginning of a decades-long friendship, before either author enjoyed literary renown. The two had an unpleasant (and very public) falling out in 1997, after Theroux received a bookseller's catalog in which he found for sale several of his own books he had inscribed to Naipaul and his first wife, Patricia. They were sold off by Naipaul's second wife, Nadira Khannum Alvi, who responded in a rather hostile manner after Theroux faxed his friend. Portions of his 1998 book, Sir Vidia's Shadow: A Friendship Across Five Continents, seemed only to exacerbate the wedge that had come between them. After 15 years, the two finally made peace at the Hay Festival in 2011. First Printing. Octavo (24cm); pale gray paper and teal cloth-covered boards, with titles stamped in silver and dark blue on spine; dustjacket; xii,365,[7]pp. Signed by Theroux on the title page, and inscribed by him to V.S. Naipaul on the front endpaper: "For Vidia / To mark twenty years of friendship - if you only knew how your good influence has kept me on the straight and narrow. With love, Paul." Spine ends gently nudged, textblock sagging just slightly, with upper corners tapped (though still sharp); Near Fine. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $18.95), with mild wear to spine ends and corners; Near Fine.