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Tropic of Cancer

Tropic of Cancer

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Tropic of Cancer

by MILLER, Henry

  • Used
Condition
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Seller
Seller rating:
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Winchester, Virginia, United States
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About This Item

New York: Medusa, 1940. Octavo (19.5cm.); original reddish brown imitation leather cloth, gilt-lettered spine, red topstain; 322pp. Light shelf wear, else Very Good overall. One of the numerous pirated "Medusa" variants, though this apparently unlisted in SHIFREEN & JACKSON: the binding conforms with A9p ("Variant Eighth Edition / Second Illustrated / Medusa Variant") but without the illustrations.

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
Lorne Bair Rare Books US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
24638
Title
Tropic of Cancer
Author
MILLER, Henry
Book Condition
Used
Quantity Available
1
Publisher
Medusa
Place of Publication
New York
Date Published
1940
Bookseller catalogs
Modern Fiction;

Terms of Sale

Lorne Bair Rare Books

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About the Seller

Lorne Bair Rare Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2006
Winchester, Virginia

About Lorne Bair Rare Books

Lorne Bair Rare Books specializes in books, mansuscripts, and printed ephemera relating to American Social History, with an emphasis on radical and utopian movements of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. We are available in our showroom by appointment, at shows, and on-line through various booksellers' sites or at our website www.lornebair.com.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Cloth
"Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
Octavo
Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
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....
Shelf Wear
Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...

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