Description:
London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1951. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Very Good in a Very Good jacket, clipped, generally soiled, toned at the spine, rubbed and with a few small closed tears at the edges and corners. Green cloth on the boards, mottled and toned at the spine. Square and firmly bound, foxed at the edges and endpapers, clean otherwise. A nice UK first printing of Kerouac's debut novel, originally published in the United States in 1950. In typical Kerouac fashion, it is an autobiographical work that juxtaposes life in small-town Massachusetts and big-city New York. In addition to citing critic Mark van Doren as calling Kerouac "wiser than Thomas Wolfe," it also praises the novel for including "some of the best football scenes ever written, scenes which really convey the excitement and hazards of the game.