43 BAUMAN RARE BOOKS “Both Admirable And Rare”: Warmly Inscribed By McMurtry To A Friend 49MCMURTRY, Larry. The Last Picture Show. New York, 1966. Octavo, original tan cloth, dust jacket. $3000 First edition of McMurtry’s popular third novel, warmly inscribed: “For Brian Curtiss—whose delicacy in regard to the feelings of harassed minor [?] novelists is both admirable and rare—with my Best Wishes—Larry McMurtry. 1-8-72.” In The Last Picture Show, “one of Larry McMurtry’s most powerful, memorable novels,” he introduced characters who would return in his later novels Texasville and Duane’s Depressed (Boston Globe). The inscribee, Brian Curtiss, was McMurtry’s friend as well as a shopkeeper who worked near Larry McMurtry’s Georgetown bookstore “Booked Up” at 31st and M Street. Book fine, dust jacket near-fine. A lovely and desirable inscribed copy. “What Is Love?… It Is The Morning And The Evening Star” 50LEWIS, Sinclair. Elmer Gantry. New York, 1927. Octavo, original blue cloth, dust jacket, custom slipcase. $4000 First edition, very scarce first issue of the controversial bestseller by Nobel laureate Sinclair Lewis, whose works “changed the shape of American culture” (New York Times). Lewis’ controversial novel of religious hypocrisy “was an instant bestseller… sales were further stimulated when Boston banned it and the evangelist Billy Sunday dubbed Lewis ‘Satan’s Cohort… A satire of American religious life, Elmer Gantry may be seen as a cautionary tale for ‘born again’ America” (Parker, 121-22). In characters such as George Babbitt and Elmer Gantry, Lewis “changed the shape of American culture” (New York Times). In 1930 Lewis became the first American author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Just a touch of soiling to rear panel of dust jacket. An about-fine copy, desirable in such exemplary condition.
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