Author: ALGREN, Nelson
Title: Somebody in Boots
Description: New York, Vanguard Press, 1935. Hardcover. 8vo. Brown cloth with green spine lettering, facsimile dust jacket (properly identified). 322pp. Very good/fine. Mildly edgeworn, with spine head/tail expertly, professionally restored; facsimile jacket pristine. A tight and nice first edition of Algren's first book, set in Texas during the Depression. Strange, intriguing author inscription (which works in the book's title) and signature in blue ballpoint on inner flyleaf: "for Carmin / who needs no boots / to be Somebody -- / As ever, best ever, / and an everbestever / too -- / Nelson / Chicago Aug '59." Algren bibliographer Kenneth G. McCollum hazards the guess that Carmin is Algren's misspelling of "Carmen" and the recipient may have been former middleweight boxing champion Carmen Basilio (1927-2012) -- whose actual first name, by the way, was "Carmine." Basilio fought some rounds in Chicago, and Algren was well known as a boxing buff. Basilio retired from boxing in 1961, so this effusively admiring inscription in 1959 makes sense. It's just a theory, but it's plausible. An interesting copy of a quite scarce book, in any case. BRUCCOLI A 1.1. .
Keywords: American Literature
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Title: Somebody in Boots
Description: New York, Vanguard Press, 1935. Hardcover. 8vo. Brown cloth with green spine lettering, facsimile dust jacket (properly identified). 322pp. Very good/fine. Mildly edgeworn, with spine head/tail expertly, professionally restored; facsimile jacket pristine. A tight and nice first edition of Algren's first book, set in Texas during the Depression. Strange, intriguing author inscription (which works in the book's title) and signature in blue ballpoint on inner flyleaf: "for Carmin / who needs no boots / to be Somebody -- / As ever, best ever, / and an everbestever / too -- / Nelson / Chicago Aug '59." Algren bibliographer Kenneth G. McCollum hazards the guess that Carmin is Algren's misspelling of "Carmen" and the recipient may have been former middleweight boxing champion Carmen Basilio (1927-2012) -- whose actual first name, by the way, was "Carmine." Basilio fought some rounds in Chicago, and Algren was well known as a boxing buff. Basilio retired from boxing in 1961, so this effusively admiring inscription in 1959 makes sense. It's just a theory, but it's plausible. An interesting copy of a quite scarce book, in any case. BRUCCOLI A 1.1. .
Keywords: American Literature
Price: US$ 950.00 Seller: Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts
- Book number: 49306
- Book number: 49306
See more books from our catalog: Books