COOVER, Robert. The Origin of Brunists. London: Arthur Barker. 1967. 8vo. First British edition, first printing. Publisher’s brown cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket designed by Sidney King. A very good copy overall, the cloth clean and bright with a couple of small bumps to the boards. Some spots to the textblock edges and patches to the endpapers, then largely fine. The dust jacket unclipped (30s net) and complete, with a couple of small closed tears and some mild rubbing, some faint marks to rear panel and spine, but a pleasing copy overall.
Coover’s ‘comic and serious, worldly and religious’ debut novel which begins with a mining disaster killing all but one of the 98 men trapped inside. The survivor swears to have been visited by the Virgin Mary, and the cult group that swarms the local town envision his miraculous survival an announcement for the apocalypse forthcoming. Originally published in the US a year earlier, contemporary readers had a hard time getting hold of the book—Putnam had production issues fulfilling the first print run, then rejected the book after personnel changes. And so despite winning the prestigious William Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel, it gained its proper commendation only after Coover’s magnum opus, The Public Burning (1977), encouraged a reprint of this in 1978.
COOVER, Robert. The Origin of Brunists. London: Arthur Barker. 1967. 8vo. First British edition, first printing. Publisher’s brown cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dust jacket designed by Sidney King. A very good copy overall, the cloth clean and bright with a couple of small bumps to the boards. Some spots to the textblock edges and patches to the endpapers, then largely fine. The dust jacket unclipped (30s net) and complete, with a couple of small closed tears and some mild rubbing, some faint marks to rear panel and spine, but a pleasing copy overall.
Coover’s ‘comic and serious, worldly and religious’ debut novel which begins with a mining disaster killing all but one of the 98 men trapped inside. The survivor swears to have been visited by the Virgin Mary, and the cult group that swarms the local town envision his miraculous survival an announcement for the apocalypse forthcoming. Originally published in the US a year earlier, contemporary readers had a hard time getting hold of the book—Putnam had production issues fulfilling the first print run, then rejected the book after personnel changes. And so despite winning the prestigious William Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel, it gained its proper commendation only after Coover’s magnum opus, The Public Burning (1977), encouraged a reprint of this in 1978.
Image 1 of 5
Image 2 of 5
Image 3 of 5
Image 4 of 5
Image 5 of 5