H. L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen and George Plimpton founded The Paris Review in 1953. He studied writing with Archibald MacLeish at Harvard, graduating in 1954. A Scientist, novelist, activist, inventor, filmmaker, architect, prophet, healer, madman, Harold “Doc” Humes was, by all accounts, an exhilarating, infuriating and terrifyingly brilliant man. He participated in Leary’s LSD experiments and later continued his own experiments, guiding the first LSD experiences of several famous literary friends. He reinvented himself as a “guru on campus”, a self-appointed visiting professor, and spent the next 20-odd years living on or near-campus at Columbia, Princeton, Bennington, and Harvard.

Description: Hard bound with dust jacket. Meets points of issue – First Edition with “4/58” date code and $4.95 price on flap, no mention of any later books and no reviews. This is one of Random House’s known anomalies, with no statement of printing evident on the copyright page. Blue cloth boards with title in gilt to spine edge. Front board blind stamped with the image of the Eiffel tower. Red top stain. Some wear to spine edge of boards. Dust jacket with several large chips and a few small closed tears, now protected in removable clear dust jacket cover. 755 pages. Ownership book plate of the New York literary agency “McIntosh, McKee & Dodds” affixed to front free end page. The author’s elusive first novel, a tale of the French underground during the last years of WWII. Humes, along with Peter Matthiessen & George Plimpton, founded the Paris Review. For many years he slipped into obscurity; this novel has only recently been reissued to glowing acclaim. The true first edition, and a  scarce copy from a legendary forgotten novelist!

Bookseller Inventory # 29821

SOLD

The Underground City
Humes, H.L.

Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 1958
Binding: Hard Bound
Book Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Good
Edition: First Edition

· Category: Sold ·