Saul Bellow. First American edition, first printing. New York: Viking Press, 1953. Both unclipped dust jacket, in a mylar protective wrapper, and hardcover are in Very Good+ condition. Jacket design by Robert Hallock. Has former owner signature on flyleaf page. Spine has some fading and is soiled. The jacket, is second state (has no reviews but is missing John Steinbeck write-up on rear flap). Has chipping on the spine as well as a small missing piece on the front corner of jacket.
First edition of Bellow's first National Book Award winning novel. All first edition points present including "Printed In The USA By The Vail-Ballou Press Inc." statement on copyright page. A solid example of Bellow's third novel. This was the first of three separate novels Bellow would write that would win the National Book Award.
"The Adventures of Augie March" set the stage for Bellow's Nobel Prize Award in 1976 and established him as a crucial voice that demanded to be heard. Fifty years later, it remains the best loved of Bellow's works as new readers discover this vital, truly American masterpiece.
The Adventures of Augie March comes on stage with one of literature's most famous opening lines. "I am an American, Chicago born, and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted." Bellow quickly found a receptive audience for his new energetic style. The critic Irving Howe took note of Bellow's "free style" manner, calling it "the first major new style in American prose fiction since those of Hemingway and Faulkner." This novel went on to win the National Book Award for 1954. Both Time Magazine and the Modern Library named it one of the 100 best novels of the twentieth century.
