"THIS IS AMERICA, YOU LIVE IN IT, YOU LET IT HAPPEN. LET IT UNFURL"

PYNCHON, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, (1966). Octavo, original half yellow cloth with gray boards, patterned endpapers, original dust jacket. $1400.

First edition of Pynchon's second novel, "a densely packed fantasia, alternately satirical and meditative" (Pringle).

A classic of postmodern literature, The Crying of Lot 49 achieves "a haunting sequence of imagined human situations, typical and pathetic ones, fused with the particularized power that shows Pynchon's own obsession with the encoded messages of the American landscape" (New York Times). "The wealth of invention is overwhelming… Pynchon's trick of sitting the action on the edge of absurdity without letting it fall off is carefully performed" (Parker, 20th Century Novel, 428). "First Edition" stated on copyright page. Mead A2. Pringle, Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels 31.

Very slight toning to upper board edges, book otherwise fine, in a near-fine dust jacket with minimal chipping to spine head and foot.