The Godfather.

PUZO, Mario.

Item Number: 92546

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1969.

First edition of Puzo’s definitive novel of the Mafia underworld. Octavo, original half black cloth. Association copy, warmly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to Hollywood screenwriter Barry Beckerman and his wife, “For Susan – the only wife in the world who would let her husband make a movie in Sweden and so lovely that she has nothing to fear from the competition- & Barry- who helped me get this book written and who I repaid by beating him in tennis. From your fellow Chinese Food addict, Mario.” Recipient Barry Beckerman wrote the screenplays for the films Shamus, A Matter of Wife…and Death and St. Ives; he was also a studio executive and producer. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing and wear. Jacket art by S. Neil Fujita. Housed in a custom slipcase. An exceptional association copy.

A searing novel of the Mafia underworld, The Godfather introduced readers to the first family of American crime fiction, the Corleones, and the powerful legacy of tradition, blood, and honor that was passed on from father to son. "A voyeur's dream, a skillful fantasy of violent personal power" (New York Times). It was made into the 1972 film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy, starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. It was the highest-grossing film of 1972 and was for a time the highest-grossing film ever made. It won the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brando) and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Puzo and Coppola). Its seven other Oscar nominations included Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall for Best Supporting Actor and Coppola for Best Director. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in world cinema and one of the most influential, especially in the gangster genre. It was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1990, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and is ranked the second-greatest film in American cinema (behind Citizen Kane) by the American Film Institute. It was followed by sequels The Godfather Part II (1974) and The Godfather Part III (1990).