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Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Cancer

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Tropic of Cancer

by Miller, Henry

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Very Good /Fair
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Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
HINDHEAD, Surrey, United Kingdom
Item Price
A$176.39
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About This Item

London: John Calder. Errata slip present on the verso of the half-title page informing of the transposing of pages 259 and 288 making this one of the scarce first-issue copies. Minor wear only to the book, no inscriptions. The dust jacket has general wear and creasing with small loss to the top of the spine, not price clipped. . Very Good. Hardcover. First UK Edition, First Printing. 1963.

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.

Read More: Identifying first editions of Tropic of Cancer

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Details

Bookseller
Weysprings Books, IOBA, PBFA GB (GB)
Bookseller's Inventory #
005989
Title
Tropic of Cancer
Author
Miller, Henry
Format/Binding
Hardcover
Book Condition
Used - Very Good
Jacket Condition
Fair
Quantity Available
1
Edition
First UK Edition, First Printing
Publisher
John Calder
Place of Publication
London
Date Published
1963
Size
8.25" x 5.5".

Terms of Sale

Weysprings Books, IOBA, PBFA

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

Weysprings Books, IOBA, PBFA

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2010
HINDHEAD, Surrey

About Weysprings Books, IOBA, PBFA

Weysprings Books is an independent bookseller based in Surrey, UK, exclusively selling on the internet. We specialise in modern first editions. We use internationally accepted terms to describe our books and endeavour to reflect their true condition in our descriptions. We regret that, due to compliance regulations, we are unable to fulfil orders to Germany and France.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Verso
The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Errata
Errata: aka Errata Slip A piece of paper either laid in to the book correcting errors found in the printed text after being...
Price Clipped
When a book is described as price-clipped, it indicates that the portion of the dust jacket flap that has the publisher's...
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....

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