This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/17/2023
[McMURTRY, Larry (1936-2021), his copy]. PERCY, Walker (1916-1990). The Moviegoer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961.
8vo. Original red cloth-backed boards stamped in black (spine slightly skewed, light edge sunning, several pages dogeared); original dust jacket (some edgewear and dust soiling, some staining at foot). Provenance: Provenance: Larry McMurtry (his bookplate, which he designed, features the horseshoe-shaped brand his father and grandfather used on the McMurtry cattle), from his personal library at his home in Archer City.
FIRST EDITION of the author’s rare first novel that won the National Book Award in 1962. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times (29 January 1989), McMurtry considered Percy “one of [his] heroes” who spent 15 years just reading while he recovered from tuberculosis. McMurtry said of his hero that “All those years, while his contemporaries were having their experiences, Walker Percy read and read. And out came ‘The Moviegoer’”. McMurtry’s advice to would-be novelists: “If you want to be a writer, you read”.