Trout Fishing in America.

BRAUTIGAN, Richard.

Item Number: 121388

London: Jonathan Cape, 1970.

First British edition of this work “that has very little to do with trout fishing and a lot to do with the lamenting of a passing pastoral America . . . an instant cult classic” (Financial Times). Signed and dated by the author in the year of publication on the front free endpaper, “Richard Brautigan London July 29, 1970.” Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Signed first editions are scarce.

Richard Brautigan was a literary idol of the 1960s and ’70s who came of age during the heyday of Haight-Ashbury and whose comic genius and iconoclastic vision of American life caught the imaginations of young people everywhere. Called “the last of the Beats,” his early books became required reading for the hip generation, and on its publication Trout Fishing in America became an international bestseller. An indescribable romp, the novel is best summed up in one word: mayonnaise.