General Fiction – Jack Kerouac

My collection of Jack Kerouac novels is quite comprehensive, though by no means complete. I can’t even say if I’ve read them all as I can only recall reading his most famous novel On The Road which I will not be displaying in this post as it’s in a Penguin Modern Classic edition. I will be doing feature posts on the Penguin Modern Classics in the future.

So what I have here are all the other various editions of Kerouac in my library. Desolation Angels is a 1972 Panther, Big Sur is a New English Library edition, also 1972

Visions of Cody & Doctor Sax are both 1980 Panther editions

The antique paperback, Maggie Cassidy, is a 1960 Panther, and The Subterraneans is a 1971 Grove Press (Black Cat) edition.

Both Vanity of Duluoz (1969 Andre Deutsch) and Visions of Gerard and Tristessa (1964 Andre Deutsch) are UK hard cover first editions, and I believe quite valuable these days.

And finally, two books about Jack Kerouac, one a biography (1974) and the other a collection of memoirs.

Next – Kesey, Kilworth & Kotzwinkle

General Fiction – a miscellany

I appear to have only one book by the following authors:

Carlos Fuentes – Terra Nostra
Jean Genet – Our Lady of the Flowers
Hannah Green -I Never Promised You A Rose Garden
Doris Grumbach – The Missing Person

Actually I do have another Joseph Heller book somewhere, but of course Catch 22 is his most famous. It’s still a great read.

Then there are the two Irvings…

John Irving with his famous ‘Garp’ and Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Shirley Jackson’s books have been out of print for decades, but I am pleased to see that her best known books have recently been reprinted in Penguin. She is an extraordinary writer and her We Have Always Lived In The Castle is my favourite of hers and also one of my all time favourite novels. I gave it to my niece at Christmas and she loved it. Merricat Blackwood is one of the most compelling literary creations of all time. My battered old paperback edition is below.

The Haunting of Hill House is one of the scariest, most suspenseful novels I have ever read. There have been several film versions of this book, but nothing beats reading the original. The Lottery is a collection of her best stories. I remember, when I was a member of a small theatrical group back in the ‘60s we performed the play based on The Lottery – I was Tessa, the victim.

Next – Jack Kerouac

General Fiction – E L Doctorow, Umberto Eco, John Fowles,

E L Doctorow first came to my notice with the publication of his novel Ragtime, which I enjoyed reading at the time, though I never really followed his career much after that, other than to acquire Billy Bathgate ten or so years later. I also have a copy of his novel The Waterworks floating around somewhere.

I, like many others, first came across the books of Umberto Eco through his best selling novel The Name of the Rose. Also in my collection is a hard cover edition of Foucault’s Pendulum (previously displayed).

The Magus by John Fowles was one of those novels that everyone seemed to read in the 1960s. This of course lead to his other books, The Aristos, The Collector and The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the latter two books being made into films. I do have a hard covered copy of his novel The Ebony Tower somewhere or other, though i don’t recall seeing lately.

Next – Miscellaneous single novels (f to i) and Shirley Jackson.

General Fiction – Joan Didion & Isak Dineson

Joan Didion’s novels and non fiction books were well known in the 1970s. Play It As It Lays, was at one time a favourite novel of mine, though it has been years since I last read it. It was made into a film in 1972 and starred Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. Democracy is a later novel (1984) and was a best seller at the time.

Isak Dineson was the pseudonym of Baroness Karen Blixen. Karen Blixen had an unusual life and her stories are unusual as well. They are not conventional in any sense and have a spooky gothic sensibility. Wonderful stuff! I have a good collection of her stories - they are displayed below and are in various paperback editions produced in the 1970s.

Next – Doctorow, Eco & Fowles

General Fiction – Brautigan, Burgess, Calvino, Carter & Cortazar

Most of my Richard Brautigan paperbacks are in Picador editions which I shall get down to displaying soon, but here are two in US paperback editions. The Revenge of the Lawn is a 1972 Pocketbooks edition and Dreaming of Babylon was published by Delta in 1978.

I recall that Enderby by Anthony Burgess as being an entertaining novel, though I have not read it for years. This 1973 Ballantine edition describes the novel as an “hilarious and touching portrait of the artist in middle age”.

Italo Calvino I discovered back in the early 1970s. It was Cosmicomics that first blew my mind, so naturally I continued to collect his books. The editions below are only a few of his books in my library. There are more in Picador editions.

Angela Carter is one of my all time favourite writers. I have an almost a complete collection of her novels and non fiction writings. Below is a 1972 Panther paperback edition of her novel Love.

I can’t really recall if I ever read Julio Cortazar’s novel Hopscotch, in any event I certainly don’t remember anything about it.

Next – Joan Didion and Isak Dineson

General Fiction/Non-Fiction - Paperbacks of the 1960s, 1970s & 1980s

In the main, the books I am about to show here, are a mixture of mass market paperbacks - the small pocket sized variety and larger formats like King Penguins etc. There will even be a few hard covers as well.

I have decided to take it in alphabetical order, starting with A. Alvarez’ book, The Savage God, a rather interesting study on suicide that was a best seller in the 1970s.

Next – Margaret Atwood’s early novels. I must admit the covers aren’t all that inspiring, but then again she did write quite a different sort of novel in her early career compared to her latest novels.

Lady Oracle was my first encounter with Margaret Atwood, and it impressed me enough at the time to continue collecting her books.

Then of course she went on to produce the fabulous Handmaid’s Tale, a wonderful feminist dystopian novel. This edition is a Virago Press edition.

And finally, for the moment – I have other Atwood books on other shelves which I will get to later - Cat’s Eye, also published by Virago Press.

To finish this post a couple of books by John Barth. The Sotweed Factor, with its outrageous plot, was another of those books which were very popular in the 1970s.

The below editions were published in 1972 & 1973 respectively.

General paperback fiction/non-fiction continues in the next post…