Sometimes A Great Notion

New York: Viking, (1964). First edition, 1st printing. 8vo. 628 pp. Original full gray with blue speckled cloth-covered boards, stamped in blue, green, in original unclipped ($7.50) dust-jacket. First-issue dust jacket with the Hank Krangler photo credit to the rear flap and the two-line author bio. Mild edge wear, particular to spine ends and corners. Light toning, mild rubbing. Protected in archival mylar. Book is tight, square and firm, bottom corners bumped. Top stain green. Minimal toning to page edges, some light foxing and page smudges. Previous owner’s name to front paste down. First issue with the viking logo to the half title page.

Dust Jacket: Very Good

Hardcover: Very Good

“Sometimes a Great Notion is the second novel by American author Ken Kesey, published in 1964. While One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) is more famous, many critics consider Sometimes a Great Notion Kesey's magnum opus. The story involves an Oregon family of gyppo loggers who cut trees for a local mill in opposition to unionized workers who are on strike. In The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe, who had traveled with Kesey and his companions on the bus Furthur, noted that initial reviews of the book varied widely. Commenting in the Saturday Review in a 1964 piece entitled "Beatnik in Lumberjack Country", critic Granville Hicks wrote: "In his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey demonstrated that he was a forceful, inventive and ambitious writer. All of these qualities are exhibited, in even higher degree, in Sometimes a Great Notion. Here he has told a fascinating story in a fascinating way."