The World According to Garp. by Irving, John - 1978

New York: Dutton, 1978. The advance reading copy of the first edition of the author's breakthrough novel. Octavo. Original wrappers. Signed by the author, who has added the words, "In [The World According to Garp], we are all terminal cases John Irving." A good copy that shows some sunning to the spine, some soiling to the cover and top edge. A nice inscription. The World According To Garp is a comic and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers of his generation. A worldwide bestseller since its publication in 1978, Irving's classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life of T.S. Garp, novelist and son of Jenny Fields. "There is something of Byron about John Irving. Not only is it that he woke after the publication of The World According To Garp to find himself famous, but the extremity of his opinions and the nervous violence of his language recall that intemperate noleman, and like Byron, he would certainly say that love is no sinecure" (Robertson Davies).