Sometimes a Great Notion.
1964. New York: Viking Press, 1964.
8vo, 628 pp. Original cloth, dust-jacket. In dust jacket, with couple of chips at top of archival protected cover. A very good copy.
§ First edition, first issue text and jacket. (Publisher’s logo on half title; not variant with logo on second half-title, no priority. Photographer’s name spelled “Hank Krangler” on rear flap of jacket, two line author bio.) Presentation copy inscribed by Kesey to “Mitch” and with a typed postcard quoting Woody Guthrie from Kesey to Harrison Brown at Stanford: “... We don’t need communes; we need (belongs to you and me) communities”. Kesey’s second novel, the mad, sordid, soggy, yet frequently beautiful Pacific Northwest epic of a logging family wrestling with industrial disputes, obstinacy, love, and rain. (It is arguably the greatest book ever written about rain.) Initial reviews were mixed but the book was a commercial success and it now frequently ranks on lists of the greatest American novels. Kesey considered it his magnum opus. Item #125482
Price: $2,500.00