62: A Model Kit. Translated from the Spanish by Gregory Rabassa.

First edition in English, first printing, of this experimental novel fulfilling the intentions of the 62nd chapter of Cortázar's Hopscotch, in which the character Morelli proposes to write a novel where "standard behavior (including the most unusual, its deluxe category) would be inexplicable by means of current instrumental psychology". 62: A Model Kit was first published in Spanish in 1968. "It is (in this fine translation by Gregory Rabassa) a deeply touching, enjoyable novel, beautifully written and fascinatingly mysterious and intricate in its designs. It is precisely because we become attached to his characters and their absurd, old fashioned dilemma of falling in love with the wrong people that we accept a kind of beneficent vampirism as a remedy for their anguished humanity" (Bersani). For his translation of Hopscotch, Rabassa received the inaugural 1968 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Leo Bersani, "A funny horror story about falling in love with the wrong people", New York Times, 26 Nov. 1972. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in white and orange, white decoration stamped on spine and covers, author's initials blindstamped on front cover, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. With dust jacket. Sunning to spine ends, else a crisp, fine copy in near-fine dust jacket, unclipped, spine panel faintly sunned, couple of nicks and a little rubbing at edges, bright and sharp overall.…