A Smuggler’s Bible

New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, (1966). First edition, 1st printing. 8vo. 435 pp. Original black cloth-covered boards, stamped in gold & teal, in original unclipped ($6.95) dust-jacket. Mild handling, rubbing and shelf wear to jacket. Tape repairs and presumed color correction to jacket - particular to spine ends and tips. Toning, creasing, a vulnerable jacket now protected in archival mylar. Book is square and firm with mild handling & shelf wear. Interior clean and unmarked. Signed and inscribed by the author. A rare example, especially so signed, of the author’s first book.

Dust Jacket: Very Good

Hardcover: Very Good

“A Smuggler's Bible is Joseph McElroy's first novel. David Brooke—who talks of himself in a split-personality manner—narrates a framing tale that consists of him "smuggling" his essence into eight autobiographical manuscripts, although their connection with Brooke is not always clear. Brooke seems to deteriorate, while his fictions become more real. In ordinary English, a "smuggler's bible" refers to a book with a cutout in the body of the pages, suitable for hiding small items when the covers are closed. McElroy explicitly acknowledged the influence of William Gaddis The Recognitions in an interview, and also in his "Neural Neighborhoods" essay, where McElroy states he was already well into his own novel when he read the Gaddis novel.”