Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me.

FARINA, Richard.

$25,000.00

Item Number: 146072

New York: Random House, 1966.

First edition of the author and songwriter’s first novel, warmly praised by his friend Thomas Pynchon; the only novel published in Fariña’s lifetime, as he tragically died in a motorcycle accident two days after its publication. Octavo, original half green cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author in the month of publication with a drawing of a flower on the front free endpaper, “for Virginia -Richard Farina, April 1966.” The recipient, Virginia Freeman was a folk art dealer, who lived in California in the 1960s and later opened the Virginia Freeman Art Gallery in Destin, Florida. Very good in a very good dust jacket. Laid in are two articles about the book, one from the April 27, 1966 issue of the Carmel Valley Outlook advertising the release party of the book at the Thunderbird Shop, and the other an obituary of Farina by Stan Cloud. Exceptionally rare signed and inscribed.

Richard Farina’s close friend Thomas Pynchon enthusiastically endorsed this, his first and only published novel: “It’s been a while since I’ve read anything quite so groovy, quite such a joy from beginning to end. This book comes on like the Hallelujah Chorus done by 200 kazoo players with perfect pitch… In spinning his yarn he spins the reader as well, dizzily into a microcosm that manages to be hilarious, chilling, sexy, profound, maniacal, beautiful and outrageous all at the same time.” A respected singer-songwriter as well as author, Fariña dedicated the novel to his wife Mimi, sister of Joan Baez. Tragically, he died in a motorcycle accident on his way to the publication party.