The Natural
"With the publication of Bernard Malamud’s The Natural in 1952... baseball fiction, especially the baseball novel, began a more serious tradition." -Britannica
The Natural is "the godfather of modern baseball fiction and arguably the most cited, studied, or imitated work of its kind." -Hye, The Great God Baseball
FIRST EDITION of Malamud's first book.
"All the story is here of a natural man -- hurt badly by his first love, recovering late for his profession, almost achieving greatness, then distracted or betrayed by people or objects or events all equated with elements in our environment. In his telling and always deliberate use of the vernacular alternated with passages evocative and almost lyrical, in his almost entirely successful relation of baseball in detail to the culture which elaborated it, Malamud has made a brilliant and unusual book." -Harry Sylvester, The New York Times
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952. Octavo, original dark blue cloth, original dust jacket; custom half-leather box. Book near-fine, dust jacket near-fine with very light edgewear and a little bit of soiling to back panel. A particularly nice copy.
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