John Barley-Corn
by Jack London (1876-1916)
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- About very good
- Seller
-
Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
[6]+343+[1] pages with 7 plates. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5"). bound in original publisher's green cloth with gilt lettering and pictorial barley spike on cover and spine. (BAL 11946) (Sissons & Martens 71) Number of copies unavailable. First edition first issue. John Barleycorn is an autobiographical novel by Jack London dealing with his enjoyment of drinking and struggles with alcoholism. It was published in 1913. The title is taken from the British folk-song "John Barleycorn". In this memoir, there are the themes of masculinity and male friendship. London discusses various life experiences he has had with alcohol, and at widely different stages in his life. Key stages are his late teen years when he earned money as a sailor and later in life when he was a wealthy, successful writer. The first recorded use of pink elephants as the stereotypical hallucination of the extremely drunk occurs at the beginning of chapter two: "There are, broadly speaking, two types of drinkers. There is the man whom we all know, stupid, unimaginative, whose brain is bitten numbly by numb maggots; who walks generously with wide-spread, tentative legs, falls frequently in the gutter, and who sees, in the extremity of his ecstasy, blue mice and pink elephants. He is the type that gives rise to the jokes in the funny papers." This is contrasted to drinkers such as the narrator, who are possessed of imagination and become drunk more in brain than in body. To them, John Barleycorn sends clear visions of the eventual pointlessness of life and love and struggle. Condition: Corners gently bumped, spine gilt dulled, spine ends and corners moderately rubbed, light shelf wear, head page ends soiled else about very good.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references.
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Details
- Bookseller
- The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- BOOKS006009
- Title
- John Barley-Corn
- Author
- Jack London (1876-1916)
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - About very good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First
- Publisher
- Century Company
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1913
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Bookseller catalogs
- Literature;
- Size
- Small octavo
Terms of Sale
The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA
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About the Seller
The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA
Biblio member since 2005
Fort Worth, Texas
About The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA
The Book Collector specializes in the finest collections of Chess, Anthropology, Americana and American Literature. Visit our website at www.bookcollectorshop.com
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...
- Gutter
- The inside margin of a book, connecting the pages to the joints near the binding.
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Soiled
- Generally refers to minor discoloration or staining.
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...