The Natural

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., (1952). First edition, 1st printing. 8vo. 237 pp. Original grey cloth-covered boards, stamped in gold, in original unclipped ($3.00) dust-jacket. Considerable handling, rubbing and shelf wear to jacket. Tape repairs, creases, soiling, foxing to jacket - particular to spine ends and tips. Toning, creasing, a vulnerable jacket now protected in archival mylar. Book with considerable handling & shelf wear. Former Army library copy. Tape ghosts to panel edges. Stamps and markings commensurate with library copies.

Dust Jacket: Acceptable

Hardcover: Acceptable

“The Natural is a 1952 novel about baseball by Bernard Malamud, and is his debut novel. The story follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked after being shot by a woman whose motivation remains mysterious. The story mostly concerns his attempts to return to baseball later in life, when he plays for the fictional New York Knights with his self-made bat "Wonderboy”. Based upon the bizarre shooting incident and subsequent comeback of Philadelphia Phillies player Eddie Waitkus, the story of Roy Hobbs takes some poetic license and embellishes what was truly a strange, but memorable, account of a career lost too soon.”