Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. Victor Gollancz, London, 1953.
Price: US$96.06 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This appears to be a library type binding as there is no publisher's imprint on spine and the book is slightly smaller than other copies of the first edition. That said it is clearly a contemporary binding. Strangely there are no stamps or other indications of any library provenance. It's an odd one. Spine a bit darkened and minor bumping to spine ends and corners. Front board slightl warped. Internally hinges intact, offsetting to end papers. The half title and title are glued a little further from the spine than the other pages and the same for the last 2 leaves (see images). There is creasing to the top corners of the first 15 leaves. Offsetting to end papers. A mark on each of the facing pages 24 & 25 where something must have been in between them at some point, food, a fly, who knows. Postage will be confirmed when you enquire or order and for light or very heavy books will vary from the ABE quote which is based on a 1kg parcel. N.B. Postage to the USA will often be quite a bit less than the quote on ABE.
Seller: The Book Business (P.B.F.A), London, United Kingdom
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. Victor Gollancz, London, 1953.
Price: US$400.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, first printing. Very Good, lacking the dust jacket. Cloth shows small white stain to cover, fading at spine and top edge of rear board. Spine lettering dulled. Light lean to spine. Foxing to pages, mostly at prelims, terminals and edge of page block. First edition.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1953.
Price: US$640.43 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 1st Edition. WHSmith Library. Pages clean and bright. Binding tight though with a slight lean. Spotting to end papers and first/last few pages. Spotting to hard edges. Moderate shelf wear to boards. Spine text faded. White stains to boards. Size: 12mo
Seller: Bookcase, Carlisle, United Kingdom
KINGSLEY AMIS. LUCKY JIM A NOVEL. VICTOR GOLLANCZ, LONDON, 1953.
Price: US$890.20 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: FIRST PRINTING. HARDBACK BOUND IN A MODERN FULL CRUSHED MOROCCAN LEATHER BINDING WITH A CUSTOM MADE SLIPCASE, PAGE EDGES GILT WITH MARBLED ENDPAPERS, HALF TITLE PRESENT. BOOK MEASURES APPROX 7 x 5 INCHES. TWO MINOR DARK LINES TO LEATHER ON REAR BOARD, SOME LIGHT FOXING MOSTLY TO FIRST & LAST FEW PAGES, OVERALL A LOVELY COPY WITH NO MAJOR FAULTS & MOSTLY CLEAN INTERNALLY. EXTRA POSTAGE COSTS MAY APPLY TO OVERSEAS ORDERS. ALL BOOKS POSTED IN STURDY BOOK BOX.
Seller: Elder Books, Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, United Kingdom
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. London, Victor Gollancz, 1953.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First edition; finely bound in full green morocco, raised bands, gilt, gilt ruled borders on boards, top edge gilt; very slight foxing to a couple of pages. Elegant.
Seller: Walt Barrie Rare Books, gleneden beach, OR, U.S.A.
Kingsley Amis. Lucky Jim. Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1953.
Price: US$1041.34 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 250 grams.
Seller: Book Souk, Porstoy, United Kingdom
Kingsley Amis. Lucky Jim. Victor Gollancz, 1953.
Price: US$1408.95 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: This is a 1st H/Bk edition of Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and published by Victor Gollancz in 1953 with its unclipped dust jacket. The book has 256 pages and is bound in green cloth with the titles on the spine in gold. The front end paper has been removed. There is a previous owners name and date on the title page but has no other marks or inscriptions. This is not an ex-library book. The jacket is tatty with bits missing as can be seen in the scan. The front board is faded at the bottom as can be seen in the scan. The binding is tight and the book is not cocked. Due to the cost and weight overseas purchasers would incur extra postage charges. If you have any questions about the book or its content please email me.
Seller: The Bookroom - PBFA Member, Melrose, United Kingdom
Kingsley Amis. Lucky Jim. Victor Gollancz, 1953.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First edition, first printing of Amis' first and best-known novel, with a signed slip and handwritten letter from Amis laid in. In the unclipped first state jacket with "12/6 net" to front flap, also accompanied by a later state jacket to support the rather worn original jacket, which helps it to look much more presentable. London: Victor Gollancz, 1953. Original green cloth boards, gilt littering on spine. Spine lettering faded, minor shelfwear to boards with spine tips pushed, light discoloration or soil along the edge of the front board which does not affect the verso or text block, foxing to edges of text block and the first few pages, owner's name to flyleaf else clean. The first state jacket is split along the spine and back panel joint with loss to the lower portion of spine, chipping to top of spine and extremities, spine toned, soiling to top corner of front panel. The later state jacket is in better condition with light shelfwear and rubbing, some toning and tape reinforcements. Together, the jackets present well in archival mylar. Feel free to inquire for more information or additional photos.
Seller: Kevin Sell, The Rare Book Sleuth, IOBA, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.
Kingsley Amis. Lucky Jim. Victor Gollancz, UK, 1953.
Price: US$1857.25 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: With dust jacket in a fair state. A scarce find of this successful novel complete with a dust jacket. Original green cloth boards with gilt lettering on the spine. Rubbed gilt. Section of the spine is faded. Bumped ends of the spine. Tiny booksellers stamp on the front paste down. Clean pages. Foxing on the front pages and edges of the pages. The unclipped dust jacket has had professional repairs. Tears and piece missing from the base of the spine and extremities. Bright colours on the flaps.
Seller: Rare And Antique Books PBFA, Exeter, DEVON, United Kingdom
AMIS, Kingsley.. Lucky Jim.. London: Victor Gollancz, 1953, 1953.
Price: US$1921.30 + shipping
Description: First edition, first impression, of the author's wildly successful first book, handsomely bound. The work "has been described as the finest comic novel of its generation, the earliest and most influential of 'campus' or 'redbrick' novels, and a key text both of the Movement, the pre-eminent poetical grouping of the period, and of the 'angry young men'" (ODNB). Its receipt of the 1955 Somerset Maugham Award cemented Amis's literary reputation at the very outset of his writing career. The book inspired the film of 1957, remade in 2003, and the two television series of 1967 and 1982, both named the Further Adventures of Lucky Jim. Octavo. Finely bound by the Chelsea Bindery in full green morocco, lettering and decoration to spine gilt, twin rule to turn-ins gilt, burgundy endpapers, edges gilt. A fine copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. Victor Gollancz, London, 1953.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, first printing of the author's best-known work. Bound in publisher's original green cloth-affect boards with spine lettered in gilt. Near Fine with faint lean to binding, slight area of sunning to foot, and slight discoloration to rear cover. Former owner name to front free endpaper, pages tanned with foxing primarily to the textblock edge. In a Very Good unclipped dust jacket with tanning to the spine and edges, chipping to the spine ends, light edge wear and light staining to the bottom of the rear panel. A nicer copy than typically found.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim.. Victor Gollancz, London, 1953.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of this hilarious satire about college life and high class manners, a classic of postwar English literature. Octavo, original cloth. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell and chemise box. Regarded by many as the finest, and funniest, comic novel of the twentieth century, Lucky Jim remains as trenchant, withering, and eloquently misanthropic as when it first scandalized readers in 1954. This is the story of Jim Dixon, a hapless lecturer in medieval history at a provincial university who knows better than most that âthere was no end to the ways in which nice things are nicer than nasty ones.â Kingsley Amisâs scabrous debut leads the reader through a gallery of emphatically English bores, cranks, frauds, and neurotics with whom Dixon must contend in one way or another in order to hold on to his cushy academic perch and win the girl of his fancy.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Kingsley Amis. Lucky Jim. Victor Gollancz, London, 1953.
Price: US$7108.79 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Original green cloth boards with bright gilt lettering on the spine. The Spine ends are bumped and the gilt is faded on the publishers name. Clean end papers with a few spots. Pages are very lightly browned at the edges. Authors signature on the title page. Unclipped dust jacket marked 12/6 net. Nicking on the edges of the spine and a 1cm tear on the edge of the spine. Spine colour is darkened. Colours of the jacket are dulled. Slight leaning,
Seller: Rare And Antique Books PBFA, Exeter, DEVON, United Kingdom
AMIS Kingsley. Lucky Jim. , 1953.
Price: US$7200.00 + shipping
Description: AMIS, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. London: Victor Gollancz, 1953. Octavo, original green paper boards, original dust jacket. $7200.First edition of Amis' first and most famous novel"brilliantly and preposterously funny" (Guardian), in original dust jacket.Hailed as "one of the four or five funniest comic novels written in this century," Lucky Jim is Kingsley Amis' first novel, a biting satire that "brought its author fame as one of Britain's Angry Young Men." To writer Paul Fussell, Amis stood as one of his generation's finest satirists "and belonged in 'the company of Swift, Pope, Twain, Flaubert and Mencken" (New York Times). This "brilliantly and preposterously funny book" remains Amis' best known novel (Guardian). Gift inscription dated year of publication.Book fine; mild soiling, trace of edge-wear with small bit of expert repair to verso of bright near-fine dust jacket.
Seller: Bauman Rare Books, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
AMIS, Kingsley.. Lucky Jim.. London Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1953.
Price: US$11495.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, signed by the author and dated February 1954 on upper endpaper; 8vo; publisher's boards, very slight fading to spine, dust-jacket, light browning to spine, light toning to head of rear panel, spine ends and corners a little chipped, short nick with creasing to lower corner of upper panel, some very light surface soiling but a sharp and very good copy overall. Amis' first and best-loved novel, rare signed and in its jacket. An attractive example of Amis' first novel; it features the titular Jim Dixon, an inferior academic in a second-rate university. Lucky Jim is remarkable for its relentless skewering of artifice and pretension; it also contains some of the finest comic set pieces in the language. One of the more brilliant concerns a weekend at the home of a ghastly senior professor. After an afternoon of enforced madrigals, Jim becomes so horribly drunk that he inadvertently destroys his host's spare room. Jim is more appealing than some of Amis's later heroes; his hatreds expressed viscerally through a vast repertoire of grotesque faces are infectious, while his increasingly elaborate attempts to dig himself out of trouble rarely have the desired effect. The result is a novel in the grand tradition of English satire.
Seller: Shapero Rare Books, London, United Kingdom