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Larry McMurtry. Leaving Cheyenne. New York: Harper & Row, [1963]....
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Description
A remarkable association copy, inscribed by Larry McMurtry to his college friend and journalist Grover Lewis, with a humorous later four-page inscription
Larry McMurtry. Leaving Cheyenne. New York: Harper &
Row, [1963].8vo. Publisher's beige cloth stamped in black and red. Original illustrated dust jacket; cloth slipcase.
FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED TWICE AND WITH A LENGTHY FOUR-PAGE INSCRIPTION BY THE AUTHOR on the endpapers. In the second issue dust jacket, price clipped, and with a new price rubber-stamped at the bottom of the front flap. On the front free endpaper in blue ink: "To Grover, / with love / Larry." Later, the author has circled the first inscription and added in black ink: "original / inscription, / now both / dated & encircled" (note: we can find no date written by the author).
The second inscription covers all four endpapers entirely and reads: "This book, my second, beloved of all romantic souls everywhere (though long since despised by me), was given to Grover Lewis, a college inspiration & friend, who must have fallen into the fell clutch of circumstance & sold it into the river of books that flows north from Santa Monica towards Berkeley - from then making its way south to reside briefly (I seem to recall) in the dismal swamp known as Austin, when so many worthier books have sunk forever beneath the sludge or (abused despised defiled) or lost in [?] games, or otherwise been [?] in fires before emerging in less than prime health at an establishment in (see rear endpapers) Houston where it came back to me. Do I want it? Will I read it? - not likely. And is it good? The question that pesters me is - is - is it believable that these three people would have kept on with one another for forty years. Since I was twenty three when I wrote I may have been overly optimistic about human's capacity for suffering one another in the long term so good spiritedly as these three do. I think the only part I still like is Molly moonlight reflecting at the end of the 3rd section. I also liked the various epigraphs; I spent a lot of time on epigraphs in those days. Does this mean anything? Will I write a sequel? What happened next? ...... LMC."
Grover Lewis (1934-1995) was a pioneering American journalist. He and McMurtry met when both attended North Texas State College, in Denton (now the University of North Texas). At college, the pair edited a magazine together called the Coexistence Review.
Condition: Unobtrusive dampstain to lower right corner of textblock, not affecting text. Second issue dust jacket price-clipped and with a new price rubber-stamped in red at the bottom of the front flap ($4.95), tape repair to bottom of spine panel, spine sunned, light toning, a few short tears.
Provenance: Grover Lewis (presentation inscription); Larry McMurtry, who had the book again in his possession at a later date; acquisition date unknown. From the William A. Strutz Library.
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Auction Info
2024 June 27 Important English and American Literature: The William A. Strutz Library, Part I, Rare Books Signature® Auction #6295 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
June, 2024
27th
Thursday
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