KEEP THE RIVER ON YOUR RIGHT (First UK edition - first impression - clean ex school library copy)

Tobias Schneebaum

ISBN 10: 0224618903 / ISBN 13: 9780224618908

Published by Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, London, 1970

First impression of the first UK edition. The book was originally published in the US by Grove Press, New York in 1969. An ex-school library copy. ***Very good in black cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The gilt is still beautifully bright having been protected by the dustwrapper. Boards clean and unmarked. Head and tail of spine just slightly creased. Corners sharp. Page block edges clean. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally also very good with the following library marks: 'Scholae Sandionensis ex libris' label (from a public school library) pasted to the front free endpaper, with a card library pocket affixed to the front pastedown (covered by the front flap of the dustwrapper). No other obvious library marks. Pages clean. No creases or tears. ***In a very good colour illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's dual price of 30s / £1 50 net. Extremities of the dustwrapper are slightly rubbed and creased, with small nicks around the head and tail of the spine. There is also some surface loss at the bottom of the spine where a library label has been removed. Dustwrapper clean, with no chips or tears. The spine is unfaded. ***204mm x 135mm. 184 pages.***'The unique and astonishing adventure of the American painter Tobias Schneebaum was to live among a lost tribe of cannibals in the depths of the Peruvian jungle. Alone and unarmed he set out into virtually uncharted regions to find some of the world's most primitive peoples. Only one piece of advice was offered him at Cuzco, the last outpost of civilization: "Keep the river on your right." After eight days walking through the jungle, increasingly exhilarated by the isolation and wild beauty around him, Schneebaum came upon the mission among the Pueranga tribe where Father Moiseis and his two lay assistants tried to teach the concept of sin to the innocent. But soon, in response to some half-understood compulsion, he set off again even deeper into the jungle to search for a cannibal tribe of legendary ferocity - the Akaramas. He came among them, crouched naked in the undergrowth. Inexplicably, they greeted him, not with poisoned arrows, but with embraces - with a fearless and reciprocal loving curiosity. Living as an Akarama tribesman, he learned their language and their myths, shared the nightly soft pile of bodies, shaved and painted his body, mastered the skills of the hunt with stone-age weapons, ate strange meat and fruit and, finally, with his brothers, consumed human flesh. This moving, lyrical and vivid document recreates the liberating experience of a man who, abandoning civilization, found in a lost world the strange incarnation of an inner self. ' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***A very good ex-school library copy of the true first UK edition of this unusual work - quite uncommon now in first edition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Seller Inventory # 8353

Synopsis:

In 1955, armed with a penknife and instructions to keep the river on his right, Brooklyn-born artist Tobias Schneebaum set off into the jungles of Peru in search of a tribe of cannibals. Forgoing all contact with civilization, he lived as a brother with the Akaramas -- shaving and painting his body, hunting with Stone Age weapons, sleeping in the warmth of the body-pile.

From the Back Cover: In 1955, armed with a penknife and the instructions 'Keep the river on your right, ' the Brooklyn-born painter Tobias Schneebaum set off into the trackless jungles of Peru in search of a tribe of cannibals.

Bibliographic Details

Title: KEEP THE RIVER ON YOUR RIGHT (First UK ...
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, London
Publication Date: 1970
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Edition: First UK Edition