The eye-beaters, blood, victory, madness, buckhead, and mercy

Hamish Hamilton, 1971. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. First British edition, following Doubleday s 1970 limited and trade editions. Inscribed by Dickey to John Gardner, of Grendel fame, in his usual flourish and aplomb on the first flyleaf, uniting two of the bad boys of contemporary literature: "to John Gardner, from James Dickey, Spring, 1979, Columbia, S.C." Dickey s 1965 Buckdancer s Choice won the National Book Award, and he is of course the author of the novel (turned cult movie) Deliverance; John Gardner s retelling of the Beowulf legend is also classic, and it won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1976, and his The Art of Fiction is still widely taught. "The two men loved each other," writes Barry Silesky in a review of a biography of Gardner in the Chicago Tribune. He quotes one of Gardner s wives, Liz Rosenberg, who observed, "Both men liked to hold court, to tell stories, to be the center of attention, to make things up, to make grand gestures." And she added: "Both were the real thing in terms of creative genius." They were both heavy drinkers and prodigious talents. They were also good friends. In fact, James Dickey showed up at George Mason once to assume Gardner s classes during one of Gardner s not-infrequent hospital stays. This book is further remarkable because it is inscribed in spring 1979. In September of that year Gardner would lose control of his motorcycle on a turn in New York and die at the age of 49, having written ten novels and many other books. Blood, victory, madness, buckhead, and mercy these guys were all these things. A remarkable piece of literary association. Also the only signed copy of this UK edition available as of October 2019. A book in very good condition with some slight bowing to boards (outward), narrow sunning to top and bottom board edges, and some minor rippling and faint staining to first flyleaf. (There is also a curious black sheet in the middle of the book, which may or may not be original?) A very good jacket with closed tears of about an inch to both covers' lower outer corners.