Items related to The Book of Numbers
Synopsis
Dust jacket design by Seymour Chwast His first book. The story of the African-American sporting life in the South during the 1930s.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Robert Deane Pharr was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1916. The son of a minister and a schoolteacher, Pharr graduated from Virginia Union University and went on to graduate studies at Fisk, Columbia, and New York University, but spent most of his adult life as an itinerant waiter who moved from track to track, following the racing season. He wrote The Book of Numbers while working in New York City. During a stint at the Columbia University Faculty Club, Pharr showed the manuscript to a professor in the English Department who helped bring it to the attention of Doubleday. Pharr went on to write several other novels, among them The Soul Murder Case and Giveadamn Brown. He died in upstate New York in 1989.
Review
Mr. Pharr begins in Biblical rhythms... and sustains his tempo with parables of love, brotherhood, and death. Fortifying the novel's supple style is its inescapable vitality; it surges through The Block, bringing to life every major and minor invention.
(New York Times Books Review)Alienation, loneliness, the quest for authentic communication between people, the effort to make sense out of a meaningless world pervade many black novels as fully as they do the works of such writers as Joseph Heller or Bernard Malamud. In Robert Deane Pharr's rich new novel The Book of Numbers, the hero strives for the illusion of independence while actually becoming totally dependent on others.
(Newsweek)"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Search results for The Book of Numbers
Seller Image
The Book of Numbers
Published by
Doubleday, 1969
ISBN 10: 9997558561
ISBN 13: 9789997558565
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: ThriftBooksVintage, Tukwila, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Fair. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Edition. Ex-Library copy with typical library marks and stamps. Dust jacket in good condition. First edition. Cover and binding are worn but intact. A reading copy in fair condition. Secure packaging for safe delivery. Seller Inventory # 3583646585
Seller Image
The Book of Numbers ( Written in the hardboiled style of Chester Himes )
Published by
Doubleday and Company, Garden City, 1969
ISBN 10: 9997558561
ISBN 13: 9789997558565
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Ocean Tango Books, Palm Springs, CA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. NICE as pictured, . no First Edition an early printing very good condition hardcover in a very good condition dust jacket, chip at spine end. With a comp slip from publisher gently read clean pages clean, price present. Was made into the 1973 American crime film directed by and starring Raymond St. Jacques. In the hardboiled tradition of Chester Himes and Walter Mosely, Robert Deane Pharr's novel tells the tale of two black men, Dave and Blueboy, traveling waiters who establish themselves as numbers runners in a fictionalized Richmond of the 1930s. Robert Deane Pharr was an acclaimed author of five novels, the first of which, The Book of Numbers (1969), was published while he was a fifty-three-year-old waiter in New York. Setting out to be "a black Sinclair Lewis," Pharr focused on the harsh yet vibrant living conditions faced by countless African Americans in urban America from the 1930s to the 1970s. Seller Inventory # PS 001978 i26 big 3
Seller Image
The Book of Numbers: A Novel
Published by
Doubleday, 1969
ISBN 10: 9997558561
ISBN 13: 9789997558565
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Wilmington Book Lover, Wilmington, NC, U.S.A.
Seller rating 1 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Very scarce in the original unclipped dust jacket. This hardboiled crime novel tells the story of two brothers in the 1930s. The plot centers on themes of power and truth, asking the question who has control. Within this novel, Robert Deane Pharr explores his heritage and personal experiences. The author's most popular novel. Mylar protected. Seller Inventory # 20
Seller Image
The Book of Numbers
Published by
Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1969
ISBN 10: 9997558561
ISBN 13: 9789997558565
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Fireproof Books, MINNETONKA, MN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. 374 pages. First edition, first printing. Dust jacket design by Seymour Chwast. Advance review copy with publisher's stamp on the front endpaper. His first book. The story of the African-American sporting life in the South during the 1930s. Fine book in a fine dust jacket with a small closed tear to the top of the back cover. A beautiful copy. Seller Inventory # 504342435