“WHEN’S THE NEXT HORSE RACING GAME?”: EXTRAORDINARY PRESENTATION / ASSOCIATION COPY OF THE GODFATHER WARMLY INSCRIBED BY MARIO PUZO TO JOSEPH HELLER

PUZO, Mario. The Godfather. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, (1969). Octavo, original half black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of Puzo’s Cosa Nostra classic, an exceptional presentation/association copy wonderfully inscribed by Puzo to his lifelong friend Joseph Heller and his wife, “For Joe and Shirley, When’s the next horse racing game (with Italian Rights Stakes?) Mario.” At Puzo’s death in 1999, Heller recalled that his friend was unchanged by the success of The Godfather, except for one thing—“He was always a gambler, and he gambled for higher stakes.”

This extraordinary presentation/association first edition of Puzo’s The Godfather, inscribed by Mario Puzo to Joseph Heller and first wife Shirley Held, speaks to their 30-year friendship that ended only with Puzo’s death in 1999. Both men grew up in New York, sharing “an impoverished, immigrant background and the resultant street smarts and street scars” (New York Times). Puzo and Heller were at the center of a close circle of friends that included Mel Brooks, “Speed” Vogel and writer George Mandel, Heller’s boyhood friend. Puzo and Brooks led those who helped Heller with devastating medical bills after he was struck down with Guillain-Barré. Vogel would recall that it was Puzo who first used the word paralyzed to describe Heller’s condition. “Mario had called George Mandel to say he’d heard that Joe was paralyzed. ‘No, Mario, you heard it wrong. I’ve already been to see him and he’s not that bad,’ George assured him. ‘He’s got something called Guillain-Barré.’ ‘My God,’ Mario blurted out. ‘That’s terrible!’ A surprised George murmured, ‘Hey, Mario, you know about Guillain-Barré?’ ‘No, I never heard about it,’ Mario replied, ‘But when they name any disease after two guys, it’s got to be terrible!” (No Laughing Matter, 38-9). At Puzo’s death in 1999, Heller observed that his lifelong friend “never asked a favor, and he always granted a request.” The success of The Godfather changed only one thing. “‘He was always a gambler,’ Heller said, ‘and he gambled for higher stakes” (New York Times). Heller’s marriage to Shirley Held, who is noted in Puzo’s description, ended in 1984, and Heller later married Valerie Humphries, his nurse during his hospitalization with Guillain-Barré. Puzo wrote The Godfather to better support his family after authoring two critically praised but modestly performing books. The novel not only “outsold every other novel of the 1970s” but also “found favor with most critics” (ANB). Puzo also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1972 film, which won three Oscars, including Best Screenplay Adaptation for Puzo and director Francis Ford Coppola. Books of the Century, 266-67.

Text generally fresh with only several small closed margin tears expertly repaired (53-57), slight soiling, edge-wear to extremely good book. Near-fine dust jacket exceptionally nice, with only light wear and one small closed tear to foot of spine.