JOHNSON, B. S., Travelling People (association copy)
JOHNSON, B. S., Travelling People. London: Constable. 1963. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s black cloth lettered in gilt to spine, in the dust jacket designed by John Holden. A very good book, the cloth a trifle bumped at corners and rubbed at one corner. The binding tight and square, the contents usually fine throughout, with small bookseller label to front pastedown. The dust jacket unclipped, rubbed, chipped and nicked at corners and joints, with noticeable area of loss to front panel bottom edge—read on as to the perpetrator. Spine and rear panel water-stained.
A nice association copy, this being Barry Cole’s copy of his close friend’s debut novel, with a rather wholesome inscription to the half-title: “Barry Cole’s personally purchased copy; the dust-wrapper cleaned up by the guinea pig. Sydney, 22.10.1969”. This does not appear to be in Cole’s own hand—it may well be his wife’s, Rita Linihan. Cole met Johnson via literary wolf-whistle—”You’re Barry Cole!”, Johnson shouted, passing Cole in a white transit van. He’d received some of Cole’s poems for consideration to the Transatlantic Review. Cole’s second novel, Joseph Winter’s Patronage (1969) is dedicated to Johnson, and is supposedly the inspiration for Johnson’s House Mother Normal. In the years before Johnson’s suicide, Cole was as close to him as anybody. On his own birthday, Cole broke into Johnson’s flat and found he had killed himself in the Roman manner, half a bottle of brandy in hand and a note, ‘Barry, finish this’. Cole never fully recovered and endured his own alcoholism. A sad case of two souls, but certainly made lighter by this guinea pig nibbles. Scarce.
JOHNSON, B. S., Travelling People. London: Constable. 1963. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s black cloth lettered in gilt to spine, in the dust jacket designed by John Holden. A very good book, the cloth a trifle bumped at corners and rubbed at one corner. The binding tight and square, the contents usually fine throughout, with small bookseller label to front pastedown. The dust jacket unclipped, rubbed, chipped and nicked at corners and joints, with noticeable area of loss to front panel bottom edge—read on as to the perpetrator. Spine and rear panel water-stained.
A nice association copy, this being Barry Cole’s copy of his close friend’s debut novel, with a rather wholesome inscription to the half-title: “Barry Cole’s personally purchased copy; the dust-wrapper cleaned up by the guinea pig. Sydney, 22.10.1969”. This does not appear to be in Cole’s own hand—it may well be his wife’s, Rita Linihan. Cole met Johnson via literary wolf-whistle—”You’re Barry Cole!”, Johnson shouted, passing Cole in a white transit van. He’d received some of Cole’s poems for consideration to the Transatlantic Review. Cole’s second novel, Joseph Winter’s Patronage (1969) is dedicated to Johnson, and is supposedly the inspiration for Johnson’s House Mother Normal. In the years before Johnson’s suicide, Cole was as close to him as anybody. On his own birthday, Cole broke into Johnson’s flat and found he had killed himself in the Roman manner, half a bottle of brandy in hand and a note, ‘Barry, finish this’. Cole never fully recovered and endured his own alcoholism. A sad case of two souls, but certainly made lighter by this guinea pig nibbles. Scarce.
JOHNSON, B. S., Travelling People. London: Constable. 1963. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s black cloth lettered in gilt to spine, in the dust jacket designed by John Holden. A very good book, the cloth a trifle bumped at corners and rubbed at one corner. The binding tight and square, the contents usually fine throughout, with small bookseller label to front pastedown. The dust jacket unclipped, rubbed, chipped and nicked at corners and joints, with noticeable area of loss to front panel bottom edge—read on as to the perpetrator. Spine and rear panel water-stained.
A nice association copy, this being Barry Cole’s copy of his close friend’s debut novel, with a rather wholesome inscription to the half-title: “Barry Cole’s personally purchased copy; the dust-wrapper cleaned up by the guinea pig. Sydney, 22.10.1969”. This does not appear to be in Cole’s own hand—it may well be his wife’s, Rita Linihan. Cole met Johnson via literary wolf-whistle—”You’re Barry Cole!”, Johnson shouted, passing Cole in a white transit van. He’d received some of Cole’s poems for consideration to the Transatlantic Review. Cole’s second novel, Joseph Winter’s Patronage (1969) is dedicated to Johnson, and is supposedly the inspiration for Johnson’s House Mother Normal. In the years before Johnson’s suicide, Cole was as close to him as anybody. On his own birthday, Cole broke into Johnson’s flat and found he had killed himself in the Roman manner, half a bottle of brandy in hand and a note, ‘Barry, finish this’. Cole never fully recovered and endured his own alcoholism. A sad case of two souls, but certainly made lighter by this guinea pig nibbles. Scarce.