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  “Hilarious, chilling, sexy, profound, maniacal, beautiful and outrageous” (Thomas Pynchon): First edition of Richard Farina’s first novel; inscribed by him to close friend Richard Gillespie only days prior to Farina’s tragic death

  FARINA, Richard.

  Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me.

  New York: Random House, 1966.

  First edition of the author and songwriter’s first novel, warmly praised by his friend Thomas Pynchon; the only novel published in Fariña’s lifetime, as he tragically died in a motorcycle accident two days after its publication. Octavo, original half green cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "G - Recognize any of these events. We had fun. Dick." The likely recipient, Richard Gillespie, was a close personal friend and colleague of both Richard Fariña and Thomas Pynchon at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The three shared the same residence and Gillespie and Pynchon attended a course together entirely dedicated to James Joyce's Ulysses (Schaub, Playing Bridge with Thomas Pynchon). The inscription in red pencil was likely made prior to Fariña's book signing at the Thunderbird book store in Carmel, California on April 30th 1966 (the few copies he signed there were done in ink) whereafter, later that same day and only two days after the novel's publication, he tragically died in a motorcycle accident. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Eric Von Schmidt. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery. Exceptionally rare, with no other signed copies traced in auction records; a 1960s...

  Price: $35,000.00     Item Number: 141590

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  First Edition of Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me; inscribed by Richard Farina with a Drawing of a Flower

  FARINA, Richard.

  Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me.

  New York: Random House, 1966.

  First edition of the author and songwriter’s first novel, warmly praised by his friend Thomas Pynchon; the only novel published in Fariña’s lifetime, as he tragically died in a motorcycle accident two days after its publication. Octavo, original half green cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author in the month of publication with a drawing of a flower on the front free endpaper, "for Virginia -Richard Farina, April 1966." The recipient, Virginia Freeman was a folk art dealer, who lived in California in the 1960s and later opened the Virginia Freeman Art Gallery in Destin, Florida. Very good in a very good dust jacket. Laid in are two articles about the book, one from the April 27, 1966 issue of the Carmel Valley Outlook advertising the release party of the book at the Thunderbird Shop, and the other an obituary of Farina by Stan Cloud. Exceptionally rare signed and inscribed.

  Price: $25,000.00     Item Number: 146072

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