“A STRIKING DEBUT”

WEIDMAN, Jerome. I Can Get It for You Wholesale. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1937. Octavo, original green cloth, original dust jacket. $750.

First edition of the first book by 24-year-old Weidman, praised as a writer who “knows his subject about as well as Ernest Hemingway knew the Paris cafes,” basis for the 1962 musical featuring Streisand in her Broadway debut, in scarce original dust jacket.

I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Weidman's electrifying first novel, was published when he was only 24. Centered on Manhattan's garment center, the novel follows the "the rise of the ragingly ambitious Harry Bogen… Wholesale was a striking debut. The reviewer in The New York Times said that Weidman 'knows his subject about as well as Ernest Hemingway knew the Paris cafes, James M. Cain the postman who always rang twice, John O'Hara the life and death of Julian English… Wholesale made his reputation and became his longest running success. Transformed into a Broadway musical in 1962 (with a score by Harold Rome), it starred Elliott Gould as Harry Bogen, and was the show in which Barbra Streisand made her Broadway debut (as the secretary Miss Marmelstein). Wholesale was also the source of a 1951 movie, which… gave Susan Hayward the central role as a female version of Harry Bogen" (New York Times). With four-page booklet containing Weidman's "Note About The Writing of This Book." Yaakov & Greenfieldt, 679.

Book fine; light edge-wear, faintest toning to bright dust jacket. A near-fine copy.