Henderson the Rain King.

BELLOW, Saul.

$8,800.00

Item Number: 39004

New York: The Viking Press, 1959.

First edition of Bellow’s fourth book. Octavo, original half cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the title page to fellow writer Christopher Hitchens, “For Christopher with good wishes Saul Bellow.” Hitchens wrote, “When I think of Bellow, I think not just of a man whose genius for the vernacular could seem to restate Athenian philosophy as if run through a Damon Runyon synthesizer, but of the author who came up with such graphic expressions for vulgarity and thuggery and stupidity—the debased currency of those too brutalized to have retained the capacity for wonder” (Christopher Hitchens). Hitchens signature on the front free endpaper, near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing. Jacket painting by Bill Preston. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. A remarkable association.

Saul Bellow is the only author to have received three National Book Awards, for The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Mr. Sammler’s Planet, in addition to both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize. The Sunday Times praised these achievements when it revered "Bellow’s oeuvre [as] both timeless and ruthlessly contemporary." Henderson the Rain King was named one of the 100 greatest novels of the 20th century by Modern Library.