“WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A RED RYDER BB GUN”: FIRST EDITION OF IN GOD WE TRUST

SHEPHERD, Jean. In God We Trust. All Others Pay Cash. Garden City: Doubleday, 1966. Octavo, original half black cloth, original dust jacket. $1450.

First edition of Shepherd’s collected stories, featuring two that inspired the classic 1983 film A Christmas Story.

"One of the 20th century's great humorists," radio raconteur and writer Jean Shepherd is perhaps best known for his stories that sparked the beloved holiday classic A Christmas Story (Bergmann, Excelsior). Shepherd also narrated the film after adapting it from tales in this first edition of his collected stories—In God We Trust. This volume's story "Duel in the Snow," with Shepherd's recollection of a Christmas full of hope for a Red Ryder BB gun, is at the heart of the 1983 film, which also contains scenes from another story "My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award." There Shepherd writes of his "Old Man" crowing with glee at receiving a contest award that turns out to be a plastic life-size woman's leg that turns out to be "a lamp… without question the most magnificent lamp that we had ever seen" (91). "A magazine writer once described Shepherd as a 'philosopher without portfolio' and a wit who never told a joke. He described himself as a humorist rather than a comic. 'A humorist looks outward and sees the world,' Shepherd said. 'A comic looks inward and sees himself" (New York Times). With "First Edition" on copyright page. Owner name stamped on front pastedown.

In near-fine condition, with only traces of rubbing to book extremities and very slight wear to foot of dust jacket spine.