TROPIC OF CANCER
by Miller, Henry
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- VG
- Seller
-
WINTERTON, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
FRANCE: Obelisk Press, 1939. FIFTH PRINTING January 1939. Dark blue paper covers (without flaps) are lettered in black on spine and black on white on front cover with no prices. A small label on first blank for a Paris bookshop LA CONCORDE. Last leaf is stamped at base "175 00". A very clean copy with very little toning to paper BUT is quite heavily cocked. Page edges roughly cut. Slight creasing to rear cover. Book is in very good condition with minor signs of wear and/or age. . 5th Printing. Paperback. VG.
Synopsis
Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer is one of the most notoriously and frequently censored books in the history of American literature. In a combination of autobiography and fiction, the novel centers of Miller’s own life as a struggling writer in Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Tropic of Cancer is written in the first person and lacks linear organization, two of Miller’s most favored techniques. Some chapters are narratives about Miller’s friends and workplaces, and others are stream-of-consciousness-style reflections, but all of the chapters touch on the sexual exploits and general low-life ruthlessness in which the author had engaged at the time. Tropic of Cancer was first published by Obelisk Press, a French publisher of soft pornography, in Paris in 1934. Shortly thereafter, the novel was banned in the US and later tried for charges of obscenity, a trial that challenged American pornography laws at the time. In 1961, the ban of Tropic of Cancer was lifted, and later that year, Grove Press published the first US edition of the novel, but only after the firm’s Barney Rosset offered Miller a sizeable advance and promised to defend the author in any future legal battles regarding the publication. Grove Press’s edition of Tropic of Cancer sold over 1 million copies by the end of 1961… and was the subject of about 60 lawsuits as well, one of which involved the American Civil Liberties Union. All of this hullabaloo makes one wonder what the reactions might have been if Miller had decided to go with the novel’s working title, Crazy Cock — which was, ironically, far more modest than the published version. Regardless, the novel’s 1970 film adaptation, directed by Joseph Strick, received an X rating (meaning no one 17 and under admitted). Today, Tropic of Cancer finds itself ranked 50th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century and 59th on The Guardian’s list of the 100 best novels.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Richard Sylvanus Williams (Est 1976) (Bookdealer)
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- d923.018
- Title
- TROPIC OF CANCER
- Author
- Miller, Henry
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - VG
- Edition
- 5th Printing
- Publisher
- Obelisk Press
- Place of Publication
- FRANCE
- Date Published
- 1939
Terms of Sale
Richard Sylvanus Williams (Est 1976) (Bookdealer)
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About the Seller
Richard Sylvanus Williams (Est 1976) (Bookdealer)
Biblio member since 2010
WINTERTON, Lincolnshire
About Richard Sylvanus Williams (Est 1976) (Bookdealer)
Office open but only by prior appoinment.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- 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....
- 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...
- Cocked
- Refers to a state where the spine of a book is lightly "twisted" in such a way that the front and rear boards of a book do not...
- VG
- Very Good condition can describe a used book that does show some small signs of wear - but no tears - on either binding or...
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