The Man with the Golden Arm by ALGREN, Nelson - 1950

Garden City: Doubleday, 1950. Later printing. Hardcover. Good-/Good-. Octavo, 353pp. A good copy at best, which has spent much of its life in the Florida Keys (where we acquired it), and has clearly survived a few hurricanes! Some bumps to edges, foxing to boards, and the dust jacket shows general dust-soiling and corner chipping. Internally quite clean. A fantastic copy, SIGNED and INSCRIBED by Algren on the half-title page in pencil: "For M. G. Gale, A steady friend from way back when, with the suggestion that he stop trying to get out of work and get out of that bed. As Always, Nelson." On a rear blank, either Gale or Algren has written, also in pencil, the address of Algren's beach cottage in Gary, IN, along with his phone number there. (This cottage, located on Miller Beach, and still standing today, was the place where Algren and Simone de Beauvoir spent a few summers together during their notorious affair). Our efforts to determine the identity of M. G. Gale, and this person's relationship to Algren were not successful, however, the very personal, tough-love nature of the inscription, signed "Nelson," and with the author's personal information scribbled on the book, strongly suggest that the two were close. Winner of the first National Book Award (1950).