Candy

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1964. First American Edition . Cloth. Near Fine/Near Fine. Octavo. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1964. First Edition with all first state points, those being - on Jacket: James Jones blurb instead of Nelson Algren's at bottom of back panel; $ 5.00 price; code 0464, bottom of front flap. Book: purple cloth, black paper boards; no statement of printing (later editions do state printing); 5.75" x 8.25", 224 pp.; red endpapers and topstain as per first issue. Near fine in near fine jacket; very close to fine, which is scarce for this title in the first state. One of the better copies you're likely to see of this inexpensively produced title. Jacket is first state and not clipped, still bearing the $ 5.00 price. Book shows unobtrusive spotting at top (dyed) page edges, faint fade toward very top of boards. Jacket shows very small scale touch edgewear at places. First edition of the somewhat tardy American re-do of Southern's original (under the pseudonym Maxwell Kenton)through the Olympia Press in Paris in 1958 -which was itself chased and marked for destruction by French authorities. Almost startlingly timeless because of its theme and Southern's execution of it, Candy was not only made into a movie (dir. Christian Marquand, 1968, Ewa Aulin as Candy, with John Astin and many others; screenplay by Buck Henry), but was the seminal source of a rogue's gallery of pirate editions and spin-offs of the same title and others. The story of a naive and gorgeous young blond girl - who quickly finds out in exactly what way we men are all, instantly and always, the same - borrows its plot from Voltaire's Candide and uses that strangely juxtaposed vehicle to shine a light on all the vagaries of modern western life which beg to be lampooned. Considered by many to be a classic of "black(dark) humor". An extremely nice copy of a title that is en route to becoming "royalty". L-80