Demonic possession William Peter Blatty The Exorcist 1971 1st US VG DJ VG+

First edition First printing with "First edition" on copyright page. No further publishing dates. Publisher: New York Harper and Row, 1971 Octavo [8.50" x 6.00"] [viii] 1-340 pp. [ii author's note] [ii acknowledgment]. Original purple boards with spine lettered in silver. Front cover blind-stamper with Harper and Row emblem. All edges trimmed. Pastedowns and end pages brown color. Clipped 1st state dust jacket with the photograph of William Peter Blatty holding a cup in his right hand on the rear panel of the dust jacket (later issue dust jackets show Blatty without a cup in his right hand).

Book Condition: Very Good Covers very bright with lightly bumped corners. Spine edges have minor rubbing. Binding tight and slightly cocked. Text is clean. Front pastedown has previous owner inscription. Bottom edge has brown stain.

Dust Jacket condition: Covers very lightly chipped. Spine has closed tear and is not sun faded.

An elderly Jesuit priest named Father Lankester Merrin is leading an archaeological dig in northern Iraq and is studying ancient relics. After discovering a small statue of the demon Pazuzu (an actual ancient Assyrian demon), a series of omens alerts him to a pending confrontation with a powerful evil, which, unknown to the reader at this point, he has battled before in an exorcism in Africa. Meanwhile, in Georgetown, a young girl named Regan MacNeil is living with her famous mother, actress Chris MacNeil, who is in Georgetown filming a movie. As Chris finishes her work on the film, Regan begins to become inexplicably ill. After a gradual series of poltergeist-like disturbances in their rented house, for which Chris attempts to find rational explanations, Regan begins to rapidly undergo disturbing psychological and physical changes: she refuses to eat or sleep, becomes withdrawn and frenetic, and increasingly aggressive and violent. The book details this demonic possession of eleven-year-old Regan MacNeil and two priests who attempt to exorcise the demon. In 1973, the novel was adapted by Blatty for the film of the same name and directed by William Friedkin with Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Jack MacGowran, Jason Miller and Linda Blair. The screenplay for the film won Blatty an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.