Harold and Maude.

HIGGINS, Colin. [Cat Stevens].

$2,500.00

Item Number: 133160

Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1971.

First edition of the classic 1971 American coming-of-age dark comedy–drama film directed by Hal Ashby and released by Paramount Pictures. Octavo, original cloth. Boldly signed by both Colin Higgins [on the front free endpaper] and singer-songwriter Cat Stevens [on the front pastedown]. The music in Harold and Maude was composed and performed by Cat Stevens. He had been suggested by Elton John to do the music after John had dropped out of the project. Stevens composed two original songs for the film, “Don’t Be Shy” and “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out” and performed instrumental and alternative versions of the previously released songs “On the Road to Find Out”, “I Wish, I Wish”, “Miles from Nowhere”, “Tea for the Tillerman”, “I Think I See the Light”, “Where Do the Children Play?” and “Trouble” (all from his albums Mona Bone Jakon or Tea for the Tillerman). “Don’t Be Shy” and “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out” remained unreleased on any album until the 1984 compilation Footsteps in the Dark: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Don Bender. Rare and desirable signed by both Higgins and Stevens.

The basis for the 1971 dark comedy drama of the same name, Harold and Maude follows the story of Harold, a neurotic teenager who enjoys funerals and visits to the cemetery, and Maude, an eighty-two year old lady still in love with life. Critically and commercially unsuccessful when originally released, the film developed a cult following and in 1983 began making a profit. The film is ranked number 45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies of all Time and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1997, for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant"