Johnny Guitar

(no dust jacket, but encased in a nice-looking facsimile reproduction of the original first edition jacket; see 2nd image posted with this listing) [a good sound copy with a bit of wear at the spine ends, intermittent underlining in the text for the first 50 pages (see Notes), plus the inevitable browning to the edges of the text block due to the inferior quality of the paper used for many Simon & Schuster books of the 1940s and 1950s; one-time owner's signature on the rear pastedown, and to the front pastedown and endpaper are affixed two trade-paper reviews of the film (one of which is incomplete)]. Western novel, memorable primarily as the source for Nicholas Ray's famously overheated film -- a truly weird and compulsively watchable cult classic that pits Joan Crawford against Mercedes McCambridge, ostensibly as rivals for the affections of the laconic title character (played by Sterling Hayden), but really just because they hate each other's guts. (This was reportedly the case both on- and off-screen.) The book was obviously destined for the screen from the get-go -- it's even dedicated to Crawford! -- and Chanslor himself, a well-established hack screenwriter, did the first draft of the script, dated June 10, 1953 (just a few weeks after the publication of the book), although it was soon to be rewritten (and, it must be said, greatly improved) by Philip Yordan and Ray, the former ending up with sole screenplay credit. (This copy is somewhat "tied" to the movie by the two clipped (and unsourced) reviews of it from film industry trade papers affixed to the front pastedown and endpaper; this suggests that the original owner, whose signature appears on the rear pastedown, might have been connected in some way to the film -- or maybe he was just a fan. That name, by the way is Robert [Guebick] Duffie; I absolutely cannot make out the middle name, and my attempts to find out anything about this person have been fruitless.) NOTE again that this book bears a FACSIMILE dust jacket, which has not been factored in to our pricing.

Product Info

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Year: 1953

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Seller Info

ReadInk

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Country: United States