Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
(Edward Gorey) AMIS, Kingsley.. Lucky Jim.. Doubleday & Company,, Garden City:, 1954.
Price: US$60.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: The author's first novel. A recent (1990s) book club edition. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Dust jacket design by Edward Gorey.
Seller: Grendel Books, ABAA/ILAB, Springfield, MA, U.S.A.
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. Doubleday & Co, Garden City, NY, 1954.
Price: US$306.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Author's first novel and classic. Maroon boards with whitte lettering to spine is tight and square with lightly bumped tips and base of spine but no fraying. Nice, old bookplate on front endpaper of a sailboat at sea. First edition stated. No other markings. Bright and fresh facsimile jacket produced by a company in San Francisco that does excellent work and is protected in mylar. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Timothy Norlen Bookseller, Santa Barbara, CA, U.S.A.
Kingsley Amis.. Lucky Jim.. Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1954.
Price: US$450.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition USA (1954), so stated. Very Good in Very Good+ DJ: The Book shows just a hint of wear to lower corner tips; the text pages have tanned very ligfhtly due to aging; the top edge of the text block is lightly dusted; four tiny, very faint spots of soil at the bottom edge of same; tape shadow at the lower outside edges (only) of the brown cloth covered boards; the binding is very slightly cocked but remains secure; the text is clean. Free of any creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of any underlining, hi-lighting or marginalia or marks in the text. Free of ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, or labels. A handsome copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing some minor, unobtrusive flaws. The DJ shows only some faint smudges and soil spots to the white background field of the rear panel; the price ($3.50) is intact; mylar-protected. Attractive and intact. Not far from 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. (8.5 x 5.85 x 1.15 inches). 256 pages. Dust Jacket design by Edward Gorey. Language: English. Weight: 16.4 ounces. Brown cloth covered boards with gilt titles at the backstrip. Hardback with DJ. The celebrated author's first book. Although Kingsley Amis's acid satire of postwar British academic life has lost none of its bite in the four decades since it was published. There's certainly no denying the impact it had when it was published--Lucky Jim could be considered the first shot in the Oxbridge salvo that brought us Beyond the Fringe, That Was the Week That Was, and so much more. In Lucky Jim, Amis introduces us to Jim Dixon, a junior lecturer at a British college who spends his days fending off the legions of malevolent twits that populate the school. His job is in constant danger, often for good reason. Lucky Jim hits the heights whenever Dixon tries to keep a preposterous situation from spinning out of control, which is every three pages or so. The final example of this--a lecture spewed by a hideously pickled Dixon--is a chapter's worth of comic nirvana. The book is not politically correct (Amis wasn't either), thank goodness. You won't be disappointed.
Seller: Black Cat Hill Books, Oregon City, OR, U.S.A.
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. Doubleday & Co, Garden City, NY, 1954.
Price: US$486.00 + shipping
Description: Nice copy of Author's first novel and, to me, his best. A classic. Young professor Jim Dixon set loose in a small college in England. Maroon boards with whitte lettering to spine is tight and square with lightly bumped tips. Small rubber stamp of former owner on front endpaper. First edition stated. No other markings. Jacket is price clipped but $ sign still evident. Light wear only at spine ends with virtually no paper loss. Jacket design by Edward Gorey. Small amount of spotting on rear panel but no chips, tears or creasing. In mylar. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Timothy Norlen Bookseller, Santa Barbara, CA, U.S.A.
AMIS, Kingsley (1922-1995). Lucky Jim. Doubleday, Garden City, 1954.
Price: US$724.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First American Edition of Amis's first book, "the quintessential campus novel," in the superb Edward Gorey dust jacket, one of his first and finest. 8vo: 256pp. Publisher's brown cloth, spine lettered in white, illustrated dust jacket priced $3.50. About Fine (end leaves lightly offset), apparently unread, jacket about Fine (spine panel toned, as often), but an excellent example. From the collection of bibliophile Donald Kaufmann. Burgess 99. Time 100. Awarded the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction. "Jim may be the single bitterest character in all of English literature; Amis certainly crafts the most brutally accurate description of a hangover ever written. A punishingly, viscerally funny attack on hypocrisy and self-importance in all their many and varied forms, Lucky Jim gave rise to much of the angry-young-man fiction that followed, but it never met its equal." (Time 100) "Widely acknowledged as the quintessential campus novel of the twentieth century." (Literary Encyclopedia) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).
Seller: Fine Editions Ltd, Lancaster, PA, U.S.A.
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. Doubleday & Company, Inc, Garden City, 1954.
Price: US$800.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Fine in a Near Fine jacket, unclipped ($3.50), lightly toned at the spine and back panel, a small circular stain on the "L" in "Lucky". Red buckram with white ink lettering on the spine. Square and firmly bound, clean internally. Amis's debut novel about college professor Jim Dixon. The novel won the Somerset Maugham Award and was listed as one of the 100 best English-language novels by Time Magazine.
Seller: Carpetbagger Books, Woodstock, IL, U.S.A.
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. Doubleday & Company, Inc, Garden City, 1954.
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Signed by Edward Gorey on the rear flap of the dust jacket. Very Good in a Good jacket, unclipped ($3.50), generally toned and soiled, a few chips at the edges, stain at the front panel. Red buckram, rubbed and slightly frayed at the edges and corners, with white ink lettering on the spine. Square and firmly bound, clean internally. Amis's debut novel about college professor Jim Dixon. The novel won the Somerset Maugham Award and was listed as one of the 100 best English-language novels by Time Magazine.
Seller: Carpetbagger Books, Woodstock, IL, U.S.A.
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim; A Novel. Doubleday & Company, Inc, Garden City, 1954.
Price: US$975.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Octavo, 256pp. Brown cloth, title in white on spine. Stated "First Edition" on copyright page. Solid text block, bookplate of Christopher Clark Geest on front pastedown endpaper, along with occasional pencil annotations. Small stain to front cover, light rubbing to corners, overall a very good example. Contains publisher's "Book for Review" card laid in, stating release date as "January 26, 1954." In publisher's dust jacket, $3.50 retail price on front flap, a touch of sunning to spine, faint soiling to back cover, faint discoloration to middle of spine. A near fine example of an early dust jacket illustrated by Edward Gorey. Kingsley Amis (1922-1995) was an English writer who, in 2008, The Times of London included on its list of "50 greatest British writers since 1945." Lucky Jim is one of Amis' best-known satirical comedies. Christopher Clark Geest, whose bookplate and annotations are in this copy, was a noted Virginia historian and bibliophile.
Seller: The First Edition Rare Books, LLC, Cincinnati, OH, U.S.A.