Holmes, John Clellon

The Horn

New York, NY: Random House, 1958. First Edition. Hardcover. "He was the greatest horn player of his generation. Edgar Pool was his name, but nobody called him that- not if they knew anything at all about jazz. No, he was simply, eloquently, "The Horn" to everybody who'd ever heard him, or heard about him. And to the younger ones, musicians and disciples alike, he was almost a myth..." (from front flap) The second, justly acclaimed novel by John Clellon Holmes (1926-1988), who was present at the birth of & (arguably) first coined & defined the Beat Generation. The main protagonist is an archetypal jazz musician in the mold of Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker et al. Among other topics, the novel is a pioneering expose of the abuse & exploitation of black American musicians, as noted in Kenneth Rexroth's (otherwise typically dyspeptic) review-essay upon its first publication. While among the foremost witnesses & historians of the Beat Generation, one of Jack Kerouac's closest friends & supporters, neither Holmes himself nor his works were truly Beat, but far more conventional & far less innovative in their style. Nevertheless, as this writer can attest having read it with great pleasure, The Horn is a most riveting & evocative depiction of its characters & their mileu. It is dedicated to Holmes' wife Shirley, "who listened," & Kerouac, "who talked." Offered here is the first edition, first printing as stated on copyright page, hardcover in original (undoubtedly first-issue with $3.75 price printed at front flap) unclipped dust jacket. A literary milestone, & an essential pillar in the Holmes collectible canon in its rarest contemporary form. Book in relatively fine-veering-on-very-fine condition with only a touch of rubbing, faint scratching to front, back covers & spine (letters & graphics at latter completely bright & intact); very slight wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; light browning & occasional faint scratching, spotting to side & esp. lower edges of text block; mild fading, faint scratching to black-dyed upper edge of same. Interior very fine with only light browning to blank paste-downs, endpapers & page leaves (the latter mostly at blank margins/edges). Dust jacket relatively near-fine with mild-to-moderate rubbing, faint scratching & occasional creasing to front, back covers, spine & flaps; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; closed, short tears, one each at lower right front cover & upper middle back cover, with miniscule loss of surface paper; some tiny chips esp. at spine-edges, corners with minimal loss of paper, surface paper. Fine- Very Fine / Near Fine. [Item #6093]

Price: $120.00