The first novel from a master of American letters and the author of the acclaimed Rabbit series: "Brilliant...Here is the conflict of real ideas; of real personalities; here is a work of intellectual imagination and great charity. The Poorhouse Fair is a work of art."-- The New York Times Book Review The hero of John Updike's first novel, published when the author was twenty-six, is ninety-four-year-old John Hook, a dying man who yet refuses to be dominated. His world is a poorhouse--a county home for the aged and ...
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The first novel from a master of American letters and the author of the acclaimed Rabbit series: "Brilliant...Here is the conflict of real ideas; of real personalities; here is a work of intellectual imagination and great charity. The Poorhouse Fair is a work of art."-- The New York Times Book Review The hero of John Updike's first novel, published when the author was twenty-six, is ninety-four-year-old John Hook, a dying man who yet refuses to be dominated. His world is a poorhouse--a county home for the aged and infirm--overseen by Stephen Conner, a righteous young man who considers it his duty to know what is best for others. The action of the novel unfolds over a single summer's day, the day of the poorhouse's annual fair, a day of escalating tensions between Conner and the rebellious Hook. Its climax is a contest between progress and tradition, benevolence and pride, reason and faith. Appended with a discussion of the book's inspiration, its aesthetic sources and models in classics of science fiction, and the way in which its future (projected to be about 1977) compares with the present. The Poorhouse Fair was written in 1957 and published in January of 1959. It was hailed at the time of its publication as "a rare and beautiful achievement" and "a work of intellectual imagination and great charity." Though its future has degenerated into our present, and Updike's later work is better known, such critics as Henry Bech have hailed this little novel as, still, "surely his masterpiece."
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Good jacket. Size: 8x5x0; Sixth printing. Very light edge wear to boards. The binding is tight, corners sharp. Dust jacket has two small tears, now in a protective mylar cover. 185pp.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. 1963 Knopf hard cover-1st edition 4th printing-note inside cover-price clipped-slight wear to edge of dust jacket (now in mylar cover) otehrwise cover and binding fine contents clean-a fine collectible-enjoy.
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Seller's Description:
Dust jacket in very good condition. Revised edition. SIGNED and inscribed by the author. Minor shelf and handling wear, overall a clean solid copy with minimal signs of use. *1977 edition* Signed by John Updike on the tilte page. Minor wear to the dust jacket. Light wear to the boards. Tight binding. Clean interior pages. Secure packaging for safe delivery.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. Very Good in dust jacket. Publisher's stamp to to edge of textblock; otherwise appears unread with NO markings. Pasadena's finest new and used bookstore.
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Seller's Description:
Very good. Dust jacket in good condition. Later printing. Minor shelf and handling wear, overall a clean solid copy with minimal signs of use. CLEAN COVER AND CONTENT PAGES. New protective mylar applied to dust jacket before shipping. Secure packaging for safe delivery.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. New edition with a new introduction by the author. Book is faintly musty, endpapers with modest offsetting, very good in a very good dust jacket with spine slightly tanned and shallow chipping at the foot. The sixth printing of Updike's first novel, originally published in 1959.
