KEROUAC JACK [as JOHN] The Town and the City

Sale 2188 - Lot 168

Unsold

Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500

KEROUAC, JACK [as JOHN]. The Town and the City. 8vo, publisher's red cloth stamped in gold; top edges stained blue, a small bit of rubbing to bottom edge; dust jacket, scattered chipping and creasing, not affecting lettering. New York, (1950)

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first edition of kerouac's first book. inscribed and signed to a neighbor from Lowell, Massachusetts: "Belated thanks for driving me home in your Buick in `32, and for your friendship to my father -" The recipient was the father of a close childhood friend, Arthur Eno, as well as being the author's father Leo's attorney. Arthur so strongly resembled his brother Gerard, who died at the age of nine from rheumatic fever, that he "fell in love" and longed to befriend him--Gerard Nicosia, Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac, 1983, pages 31-32. Soon after the publication of The Town and the City, Arthur asked Kerouac to inscribe this copy of his first book to his father. It has remained in the family ever since. Arthur Eno became an influence for the character Ernie Malo in his 1959 novel Maggie Cassidy, a largely autobiographical work about his early life in Lowell. Charters A1a.