Geronimo Rex (First US Edition)

HANNAH, Barry. Geronimo Rex. New York: The Viking Press, 1972. First edition, first printing, with “Published in 1972 by The Viking Press” on the copyright page and no later-printing statement. Octavo; 337 pp.; publisher’s red boards backed in orange cloth, spine lettered in red and gilt, yellow topstain; original color pictorial dust jacket designed by Stuart Rosenberg, with $7.95 price intact. Very Good or slightly better in a Very Good dust jacket. Book has a tight binding, sharp corners, and clean, unmarked interior; a touch of rearward lean and a smudge to the bottom edge of the text block. Jacket shows slight edge wear and general rubbing to the panels; not price-clipped. Note: Hannah’s first novel and the true first U.S. edition. The trade issue is identified by the Viking imprint, orange cloth-backed red boards, yellow topstain, and the Rosenberg jacket retaining its original $7.95 price; a book-club issue also exists. Copies of the first printing in the original priced jacket are increasingly sought after. Importance: A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel set in the mid-century American South, Geronimo Rex introduced Hannah’s exuberant, darkly comic, and linguistically charged voice. The novel received the William Faulkner Foundation Award and was nominated for the National Book Award, establishing Hannah as a major new figure in Southern fiction. This first printing in its unclipped jacket is a solid collectible example of the author’s important debut.…