Midnight Cowboy.

HERLIHY, James Leo.

Item Number: 142117

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965.

First edition of this classic work, basis for the Academy Award-winning film directed by John Schlesinger, starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, lengthily inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Marion: a birthday wish: Be happy, Live forever. Love. Jamie. Brooklyn, March (28) 30, 1966.” Herlihy frequently signed using his nickname, Jaime, especially when he happened to be signing for someone’s birthday. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Paul Bacon. Housed in a custom half morocco slipcase. Uncommon in this condition and signed.

Midnight Cowboy is considered by many to be one of the best American novels published since World War II. The main story centers around Joe Buck, a naive but eager and ambitious young Texan, who decides to leave his dead-end job in search of a grand and glamorous life he believes he will find in New York City. But the city turns out to be a much more difficult place to negotiate than Joe could ever have imagined. He soon finds himself and his dreams compromised. Buck’s fall from innocence and his relationship with the crippled street hustler Ratso Rizzo form the novel’s emotional nucleus. This unlikely pairing of Ratso and Joe Buck is perhaps one of the most complex portraits of friendship in contemporary literature. The film was directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with notable roles being filled by Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Brenda Vaccaro, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Salt, and Barnard Hughes. At the 42nd Academy Awards, the film won three awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture. It has since been placed 36th on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films of all time, and 43rd on its 2007 updated version. In 1994, Midnight Cowboy was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.