THE GRASS ARENA - An Autobiography (First paperback edition - first printing)
John Healy (With an introduction by Colin MacCabe)
Language: English
Published by Faber and Faber, 3, Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AU, 1990
- First Edition
- Softcover
- Used
Seller: Orlando Booksellers, Lincoln, United KingdomOrlando Booksellers
AbeBooks seller since January 11, 2000
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 65.00
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
A first printing of the true first paperback edition, published in 1990, with 'First published in 1988 - Reprinted 1988' and 'This paperback edition first published in 1990'' on the printer's page. The scarcer hardcover first edition appeared in 1988, and was reprinted just the once before the novel was withdrawn from circulation and existing copies were pulped. ***Very good in illustrated card covers, with 'Autobiography of the Year' printed on the front cover. The covers are clean, with just some light rubbing and creasing at the edges, commensurate with age and handling - in particular, there is a crease at the top corner of the front cover, and creasing to the bottom corner of the back cover (please see scans). There is some surface rubbing to the edges of the spine, and a light vertical reading crease to the spine, but no reading lean. Spine tight. A couple of foxing spots to the fore-edge of the page block, just slightly affecting the page margins. Contents also very good, with no inscriptions or annotations, but there is some light foxing to the first and last few pages - not too noticeable. Paper stock lightly tanned. ***194 pages including a printed Chess Problem and Solution at the back of the book. 197mm x 126mm. ***'John Healy was born in London in 1943 to Irish immigrant parents in London's Kentish Town. Leaving school at the age of 14, he spent his formative years in the army, where he had a successful boxing career. Dishonourably discharged for drunkenness, resisting the guard and going absent without leave, Healy began a downward spiral that brought him into the subculture of London's homeless street drinkers. He spent fifteen years as a homeless alcoholic and was convicted of many petty crimes during this time. During one of his prison stretches he learned the game of chess from a fellow cellmate, Harry 'the Fox'. Finding that he had a special aptitude for the game, he decided to give up drinking and with the help of his former Probation Officer, Clive Soley (now Clive Soley, Baron Soley), he made his first moves back into normal life. He has remained sober since. His chess career continued for ten years and despite the ravages of his years spent on the streets he became a highly rated player, capable of playing four games simultaneously whilst wearing a blindfold and several games simultaneously with sight of the boards. Having given up his ambition of becoming a Grandmaster, Healy retired from tournament chess and began to write his life story, which was published in 1988 by Faber and Faber. "The Grass Arena" was instantly recognised as a classic of the memoir genre, and won many awards including the J. R. Ackerley Award for Literary Autobiography. This was the first book in the history of the prize to win the award outright. In 1990 Healy's autobiography was adapted into a film of the same name that won many major international awards, including the inaugural Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival. A documentary about Healy's life and work, titled Barbaric Genius, directed by Paul Duane and produced by Screenworks Film and TV premiered at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in 2011. It was nominated for the 2012 Grierson Documentary Award. Following a dispute with Faber and Faber in 1991, the book was put out of print in the UK, but was re-issued in 2008 as a Penguin Classic.' (Wiki) ***A first printing of the true first paperback edition, in very good condition, albeit with the aforementioned creases to the covers and light foxing. Due to the publisher withdrawing the book from circulation, copies of the original Faber editions in any printing are very scarce now. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…
Seller Inventory # PB697
- Title
- THE GRASS ARENA - An Autobiography (First paperback edition - first printing)
- Author
- John Healy (With an introduction by Colin MacCabe)
- Publisher
- Faber and Faber, 3, Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AU
- Publication year
- 1990
- Condition
- Very Good
- Dust jacket
- No Jacket, as Issued
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 057115171X
- ISBN 13
- 9780571151714
- Edition
- First UK Paperback Edition
- Printing
- First Printing
- Seller catalogs
- Collectable Paperbacks, First Editions, Literature
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review
'Terrific' -- Harold Pinter
'The Grass Arena' is a masterpiece -- Ervine Welsh
'The grass arena is a one off .... one of the most compelling pieces of literature i have ever come accross' -- The Irish post
'Time and again one is appalled by the pleasure The grass Arena furnishes as literature, when it is so clearly not fiction. And this sense of the reader#s dilemma as a priviledged observer in a world of casual savagery that is palpably real is a troubling and thouroughly enriching one' -- John Kemp Literary review
The last thing John Healy needs is a tidy snippet of blurb from the likes of me which is a good thing because economy defeats me; I don't know how to be moderate or concise in praise of his startling autobiography `The Grass Arena'. So economy I'll leave to him, a master storyteller with an ear, an eye and a voice that should be the envy of many men with weightier reputations. There is no perceptible distance between the words, which seem to have chosen themselves and the experiences from which they blossomed like a garden of wild flowers. Armed to the teeth with his wit and self-knowledge he takes us to that other place, his grass arena, the one which we pass how many times in any given day, averting our eyes? The one into whose violent clutches we might descend more easily than we dare to contemplate. He is our jaunty, gleeful tour guide and messenger from hell. His fellow combatants, exuberant, murderous and sentimental, by turns touchingly loyal, vengeful and treacherous seem to have sprung from the same bloodlines as Falstaff, Pistol, Nell and their fellows. They pitch their tents in the same refuse-filled shadows as their forebears; a confederacy of the dispossessed. Healy's life, were it not for an astonishing turn of events, seems predestined to be a short one.
As in Knut Hamsun's mighty book `Hunger', we are utterly compelled both by the power of Healy's story and his great power in the telling of it, no matter how bleak the outlook, to stay by his side until the last word is writ. -- Daniel Day Lewis, August 2008
`A masterpiece'
-- Irvine Welsh
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Orlando Booksellers
Lincoln, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since January 11, 2000
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We specialize in 20th Century literature, and in particular, Modern First Editions. We would be interested in buying such books, whether individual items or collections. We are particularly interested in Bloomsbury writers, Beats & Counter Culture and 20th C photography monographs. Our books can be viewed as a whole on ABE, or by choosing one of a number of catalogues that we have set up for particular interests, such as Crime Fiction & True Crime, Collectable Paperbacks, Children's Literature etc.…
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Modern First Editions, Literature, Literature in Translation, Bloomsbury Group, Counter-culture, Antiquarian, Collectable Paperbacks, Art & PhotographySeller's business information
Orlando Booksellers
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