Big Sur
By Jack Kerouac
 
First UK edition, first impression: London: Andre Deutsch, 1963.
 
Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With the original orange pictorial dust jacket designed by Signum.
 
The cloth is clean and sound, with a very slight lean and gentle softening to the spine ends. Gilt bright and fully legible. The text block shows moderate age-toning, with very faint spotting to the edges and one mark to bottom edge; internally clean and unmarked.
 
The price-clipped dust jacket shows notable creasing and abrasion to folds. There is moderate chipping at the spine tips and corners, a few short closed tears, and old tape reinforcement to spine hinge verso; colours remain strong, and the striking cover image retains good visual impact.
 
Big Sur is Kerouac’s raw, disillusioned late Beat novel, chronicling his psychological collapse and retreat to the California coast. Published in Britain the year after the American edition, the Andre Deutsch issue is markedly less common than its Viking counterpart and is distinguished by its bold photographic jacket.
 
A good and sound, presentable example of one of Kerouac’s most uncompromising works.