THE SAND PEBBLES

New York: Harper & Row, 1962. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. McKenna, who died about a year after publication of "The Sand Pebbles," used his own experience on a naval gunboat as the basis for this novel about the crew of an antique U.S. Navy gunboat patroling China's Yangtze River in the 1920s. Completed in 1962 after McKenna's retirement from the Navy, it was first serialized in "The Saturday Evening Post and later adapted for a movie starring Steve McQueen, Candice Bergen and Richard Attenborough. First Edition, First Printing (stated First with the Publisher's "l - m" code on copyright page). This copy is dressed in a "Book of the Month Club" dustjacket with the sunburst announcement, "1963 Harper Prize Novel," on the DJ's front panel. McKenna completed the novel and entered it in the Harper Prize contest at the last minute in May, 1962. Harper & Row knew they had a bestseller with its magazine serialization, its winning the $10,000 Harper Prize and its selection by the Book of the Month Club, in the 1960s,a selection equivalent to selection by Oprah Winfrey today. Taking advantage of the book's growing populatity, Harper & Row apparently placed the BOMC jacket with its prize announcement, on part of the larger than normal first printing, creating a first printing with a "second state" dj. About 5 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches, 397 pages with an author's note, bound in red cloth-covered boards with gold lettering on spine and map of South China on front and back end pages. DJ's pictorial front panel shows small boat flying American flag being watched from shore by Chinese figure with rifle. Back panel shows b & w photo of author. Both flaps carry BOMC selection notice. Boards show only a touch of edge wear, and lightly bumped spine ends. No significant flaws -- no worn or bumped corners, no chipping or scratching. Not ex-library. Text is complete, clean and unmarked. No tears, creases or other flaws. Dustjacket shows moderate edge wear with some tiny closed tears and chips at spine ends, o/w 95% whole with no print or graphic details lost. A very nice copy of this first edition, first printing variant of a novel that is perhaps not as well remembered as it should be.