“CLASSIC ROBBINS” (TOR)

ROBBINS, Harold. The Storyteller. New York: Simon and Schuster, (1985). Octavo, original half blue cloth, original dust jacket. $300.

First edition of this “intrigue-filled thrill ride set against a backdrop of high society decadence,” inscribed, “For Paul [Gitlin]— Sorry— your brother [Milton] got the bigger billing. Much love. Harold R. B.H. 30 Dec ‘85.”

"Harold Robbins' formula of sex, money and power made him one of the best-selling authors of his day… Robbins himself once said, 'I just happen to think I've done better than anyone else in reflecting the times in which I live… and the claim isn't completely absurd. If nothing else… [his] oeuvre changed American publishing." The Storyteller comes as close to an autobiography as never before in his novels. Using "the formula," Robbins takes his protagonist "from a world of gangsters, drug dealers, prostitutes, and pimps to the glamour of Hollywood, the dolce vita of Europe, and all the glitter, self-indulgence, and easy sex that comes in the wake of success" (Tor). The recipient of this copy was Robbins' close friend Paul Gitlin, his agent and attorney for 35 years. Gitlin's modus operandi was: "I structure the deal first, and then Harold worries about the writing." Gitlin structured extraordinary deals— for domestic rights, foreign rights, television, movies. The rights to The Adventurers, for example, were sold for a million dollars before Robbins even wrote a single word.

A fine inscribed copy.