New York: Horace Liveright, (1929).
Price: $1,600.00
Hardcover. Third printing (the same month as the first printing, curiously in the same green plush binding as the first issue). Bookplate of Madison Avenue advertising marvel and bibliophile P.K. Thomajan, a little wear at the bottom of the boards, near fine in a very good or better third printing dustwrapper with shallow chips at the top of the front panel. Inscribed by Perelman at a later date: "To P.K. Thomajan Sincerely S.J. Perelman. Feb 2., 1944." Perelman's rare first book, the Groucho Marx blurb on the rear panel says it all: "From the moment I picked up your book until I put it down I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend to read it." Some modest wear, but still a very nice copy, the abrasive plush material of the binding tended to rub the jacket away to nothing. The fact that the third printing binding is made from green plush material might shed some doubt on the commonly held opinion that the green plush precedes the silver embossed boards, or not. At any rate we've seen only one other inscribed copy.
Item #347866