Kerouac, Jack | The Town and The City, first edition of his debut novel

Lot 49
08.12.2023 12:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Vendu
$ 762
AuctioneerSotheby´s
Lieu de l'événementEtats-Unis, New York
Archive
La vente aux enchères est terminée. Vous ne pouvez plus enchérir.
Archive
ID 1108768
Lot 49 | Kerouac, Jack | The Town and The City, first edition of his debut novel
Valeur estimée
$ 600 – 800
Kerouac, Jack
The Town and the City. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1950

8vo. Publisher's red cloth, stamped in gilt, spine gilt. Dust jacket by Leo Manso; light wear, especially to joints and head and foot of spine.

The first edition of Kerouac's first novel.

Kerouac chose to be called John for his first publication, changing to Jack for the publication of On the Road. In lot 43, a excited Kerouac shares that his novel has been accepted for publication by Robert Giroux, with whom he worked on the revisions of the work into late 1949. The book was published in 1950 to a considerable print run of 10,500 copies. It did not sell well, and Kerouac felt marred by this initial lack of success until the eventual publication of On the Road in 1957.

On the dust-jacket, Kerouac describes it in a letter to Ed White as: "simple, unostentatious...depicting a river winding through New England countryside" (lot 47).

Kerouac related his novel to one of the basic themes in American literature: "Lowell, like Winesburg, Ohio, or Asheville, North Carolina or Fresno, California or Hawthorne's Salem, is always the place where the darkness of the trees by the river, on a starry night, gives a hint of that inscrutable future Americans are always longing and longing for. And when they find that future, not till then, they begin looking back, with sorrows, and an understanding of how man haunts the earth, pacing, prowling, circling in the shades, and the intelligence of the compass, pointing to nothing in sight save starry passion" (Selected Letters, 1940–1956, p. 221).
Adresse de l'enchère Sotheby´s
1334 York Avenue
10021 New York
Etats-Unis
Aperçu
01.12.2023 10:00 – 17:00
02.12.2023 10:00 – 17:00
03.12.2023 13:00 – 17:00
04.12.2023 10:00 – 17:00
05.12.2023 10:00 – 17:00
06.12.2023 10:00 – 17:00
07.12.2023 10:00 – 17:00
Téléphone +1 212 606 7000
E-mail
Conditions d'utilisationConditions d'utilisation
Heures d'ouvertureHeures d'ouverture
Lu 10:00 – 17:00   
Ma 10:00 – 17:00   
Me 10:00 – 17:00   
Je 10:00 – 17:00   
Ve 10:00 – 17:00   
Sa 10:00 – 17:00   
Di 13:00 – 17:00   

Plus du Créateur

Kerouac, Jack | Typed postcard signed to Ed White; selling stories to buy to buy
Kerouac, Jack | Typed postcard signed to Ed White; selling stories to buy to buy "500 beers for everybody"
$800
Kerouac, Jack | Typed letter to Allen Ginsberg;
Kerouac, Jack | Typed letter to Allen Ginsberg; "God, I'm going to die this year"
$7 000
Kerouac, Jack | Typed letter signed to his girlfriend Lois Sorrells;
Kerouac, Jack | Typed letter signed to his girlfriend Lois Sorrells; "I’ll end up with my ass in the straw"
$4 000
Kerouac, Jack | Typed letter signed to Ed White, discussing On the Road, Alene Lee, and Malcolm Cowley
Kerouac, Jack | Typed letter signed to Ed White, discussing On the Road, Alene Lee, and Malcolm Cowley
$8 000
Kerouac, Jack | Typed letter to Allen Ginsberg, a blunt letter addressing a rift in their friendship
Kerouac, Jack | Typed letter to Allen Ginsberg, a blunt letter addressing a rift in their friendship
$10 000
Kerouac, Jack | Two typed letters to Allen Ginsberg, analyzing his vision of William Blake through his new Buddhist worldview
Kerouac, Jack | Two typed letters to Allen Ginsberg, analyzing his vision of William Blake through his new Buddhist worldview
$10 000
Kerouac, Jack | Maggie Cassidy, inscribed to his mother
Kerouac, Jack | Maggie Cassidy, inscribed to his mother
$20 000
Kerouac, Jack | Typed letter signed to Allen Ginsberg, refusing to help promote Junkie
Kerouac, Jack | Typed letter signed to Allen Ginsberg, refusing to help promote Junkie
$5 000

Termes connexes

?>