THE SADDEST SUMMER OF SAMUEL S

New York: Delacorte Press, 1966. First Edition. . Hardcover. Very Good/Good To Good Plus. This short novel is among the early work from Donleavy, whom Time Magazine once described as "the novelist who is most truly black and funny about sex and death," and whose first novel, "The Ginger Man," became a 20th century cult classic. Samuel S., a man of lonely principles and survivor of the tiny battles of the spirit waged in bedrooms around the world, is under siege in his Vienna lighthouse by Abigail, an American college girl seeking her own emancipation in the seduction of Samuel S., the last of the world's solemn failures. First Edition, First Printing. Quarter-cloth bound, red, paper-covered boards show only a touch of wear at spine ends, and top and bottom edges of text are very lightly foxed, o/w boards and text are clean and unmarked, tight and square, not remaindered. Primarily white dustjacket has small chip missing at top of spine and shows age-tanning and light soiling along edges and spine but is o/w free of significant flaws. No tears or creasing, not price-clipped. First edition copies of this Donleavy work becoming increasingly scarce.