A Confederate General from Big Sur.

BRAUTIGAN, Richard.

$2,250.00

Item Number: 125842

New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1964.

First edition of Brautigan’s first published novel. Octavo, original cloth. Signed and dated by the author on the title page, Richard Brautigan January 22, 1964.” Review slips of examples we’ve seen note the publication date as January 22, 1965, so we believe Brautigan must have written the incorrect year as many of us do in the new year. Laid in are two photographs of Brautigan credited to Bancroft Library. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket painting by Larry Rivers. Jacket photograph by Erik Weber. A very nice example.

Written when Brautigan was 29 years old, A Confederate General from Big Sur follows the story of Lee Mellon, a man who believes himself to be a descendant of a Confederate general and seeks the truth of his own modern-day war against the status quo of the modern United States in light of the Confederacy's past struggle with the Union. Brautigan completed the novel in 1961 but it was not published until January 22, 1965. The novel sold poorly and soon went out of print but was later republished when Brautigan developed something of a cult following, largely based on his reputation developed in response to his next major work, the novella Trout Fishing in America.