GADDIS, William. JR. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975.
Large 8vo., original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt; upper edge red, outer untrimmed; dust jacket designed by Janet Haverson; pp. [x], 5-725, [v]; the binding a little discoloured and rubbed to edges; slightly shaky; else a very good copy; the jacket with some vertical creases to panels, two small closed tears (one to each panel, not exceeding 1.5cm in length); spine lightly sunned, but very good, regardless.
First edition, as stated. With publisher's note card tipped in to ffep, warmly inscribed by the author: "Otto- / You are still ahead pound:wise but I may catch up yet, W.G."
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction in 1976, JR tells the story of a schoolboy who secretly amasses a fortune in penny stocks. Gaddis claimed that the concept came from an idea of satirising the American dream, or turning it "inside out". It is told almost solely through dialogue, and with no chapter separations within its 725 pages. The setting is, for the most part, a desolate, nightmarish version of Massapequa, New York and features a ludicrously dysfunctional school board. Indeed Gaddis, who in real life spent many years in Massapequa and had much of his property seized by the school board there, said, half in jest, that he "wrote J R in revenge against Massapequa."
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