London: Allen Lane. 1981. First British edition. John Kennedy Toole’s wonderfully picaresque novel, largely autobiographical, about the hilarious travails of Ignatius J. Reilly. Published posthumously at the thankful incessancy of Toole’s controlling mother—she pestered the New Orleans author, Walker Percy, for years to read her son’s manuscript—the book was published to immediate acclaim, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981.

Foreword by Walker Percy. 8vo. First British edition. Publisher’s cream cloth with gilt lettering to the spine, in the striking dust jacket by Ed Lindlof capturing Ignatius in all his perversity and eccentricity. The book another victim of the printing issue which saw most of the print run suffer from heavy toning to the cloth spine. The binding otherwise tight with a gentle roll and just starting at the gutter of the title page, the textblock edges with a few light stains and a trifle wavy. Endpapers with some light stains and one faint ink signature to the front endpaper, else clean throughout. The dust jacket unclipped (£7.95 sticker over the original) with some tape ghosting to the flaps, the spine a trifle faded as is almost always the case, but otherwise sharp. A worthy tome for any shelf regardless.