The Day of the Locust -
Nathanael West
1939 - Random House, New York - First Edition
A very difficult first edition to find in a reasonable dust jacket with the price intact on the front flap (those without price should be treated with caution as there was an unpriced book club edition) no restoration or tape repair, with the commonly encountered toning to the spine label due to the publisher’s adhesive.
‘Admired by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, and Dashiell Hammett, and hailed as one of the “Best 100 English-language novels” by Time magazine, The Day of the Locust continues to influence American writers, artists, and culture.’ [New Directions].
‘In The Day of the Locust a young artist, Tod Hackett, arrives in LA full of dreams. But celebrity and artifice rule and he soon joins the ranks of the disenchanted that drift around the fringes of Hollywood. When he meets Faye Greener, an aspiring actress, he is intoxicated and his desperate passion explodes into rage...’ [Penguin]
‘Los Angeles has been the subject of, and setting for, many fine novels yet The Day of the Locust still feels like the single best-achieved piece of fiction the city has inspired.’ – The Los Angeles Times. The Day of the Locust ‘explores the dark underbelly of Hollywood through the eyes of its protagonist, Tod Hackett. The novel follows Hackett, a disillusioned artist, as he encounters eccentric characters and witnesses the decay of dreams in the entertainment industry. West’s narrative explores the disintegration of the American Dream, blending surrealism and biting satire to paint a vivid portrait of the desperation and disillusionment prevalent in 1930s Los Angeles.’ [Spark Notes]
‘Nathanael West was born in 1903. From 1924-1931 he lived in Paris where he wrote The Dream Life of Balso Snell. On his return to New York he became associate editor of the magazine Contact alongside William Carlos Williams. Towards the end of his life he worked on film scripts in Hollywood. He and his wife were tragically killed in a car accident in 1940’
References: Spark Notes. Penguin Classics. New Directions.
Octavo (book size 21x13.7cm), pp. [8] 238 [2]. In publisher’s red cloth, orange paper spine label lettered and ruled in black, top edge tinted black. Dust jacket priced ‘$2.00’ to upper corner of front flap. Condition: Very good, soiling to cloth, and toning to spine label, toning to endpapers, text block clean throughout, in very good dust jacket, spine toned, wear and loss to head and tail of spine, wear along top edge, short closed tears to folds. Ref: 112161 Price: HK$ 16,000
‘Admired by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, and Dashiell Hammett, and hailed as one of the “Best 100 English-language novels” by Time magazine, The Day of the Locust continues to influence American writers, artists, and culture.’ [New Directions].
‘In The Day of the Locust a young artist, Tod Hackett, arrives in LA full of dreams. But celebrity and artifice rule and he soon joins the ranks of the disenchanted that drift around the fringes of Hollywood. When he meets Faye Greener, an aspiring actress, he is intoxicated and his desperate passion explodes into rage...’ [Penguin]
‘Los Angeles has been the subject of, and setting for, many fine novels yet The Day of the Locust still feels like the single best-achieved piece of fiction the city has inspired.’ – The Los Angeles Times. The Day of the Locust ‘explores the dark underbelly of Hollywood through the eyes of its protagonist, Tod Hackett. The novel follows Hackett, a disillusioned artist, as he encounters eccentric characters and witnesses the decay of dreams in the entertainment industry. West’s narrative explores the disintegration of the American Dream, blending surrealism and biting satire to paint a vivid portrait of the desperation and disillusionment prevalent in 1930s Los Angeles.’ [Spark Notes]
‘Nathanael West was born in 1903. From 1924-1931 he lived in Paris where he wrote The Dream Life of Balso Snell. On his return to New York he became associate editor of the magazine Contact alongside William Carlos Williams. Towards the end of his life he worked on film scripts in Hollywood. He and his wife were tragically killed in a car accident in 1940’
References: Spark Notes. Penguin Classics. New Directions.
Octavo (book size 21x13.7cm), pp. [8] 238 [2]. In publisher’s red cloth, orange paper spine label lettered and ruled in black, top edge tinted black. Dust jacket priced ‘$2.00’ to upper corner of front flap. Condition: Very good, soiling to cloth, and toning to spine label, toning to endpapers, text block clean throughout, in very good dust jacket, spine toned, wear and loss to head and tail of spine, wear along top edge, short closed tears to folds. Ref: 112161 Price: HK$ 16,000