Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
John Updike. Hoping for a Hoopoe. Victor Gollancz, London, 1959.
Price: US$50.38 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 82pp + ix prelims. Collection of fifty-five poems. Black cloth covered boards with gilt lettering on face and spine. Light toning to top page edges. SIGNED by the author on title page. Author's first book of poetry. Unclipped dust jacket (price 12/6) with small vertical tears to top edge of back cover. Slight shelf wear of dust jacket all round. Now protected in archival film.
Seller: The Bookshop at Beech Cottage, Newbury, United Kingdom
Updike, John. Hoping For a Hoopoe (Signed First Edition). Victor Gollancz, London, 1959.
Price: US$132.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First Printing. Signed by the author to a laid-in decorative bookplate. The book would be near fine, but for some foxing to the top edge of the text block, and minor pushing at the extremities. The price-clipped dust jacket -- now protected by a removable Brodart archival cover -- is very good, with some toning, light soiling, and edgewear, causing a few small edge tears (professionally repaired) and small nicks to the head of the spine/top front corner. Overall a nice collectible copy of the author's first book, published in the U.S. as The Carpentered Hen. Please be sure to check out the other John Updike titles in our inventory. We ship all of our books bubble-wrapped in sturdy, very well-padded boxes, so they are guaranteed to arrive in the exact same condition as when they left. Please feel free to email with any questions/offers/trades and thank you for supporting small independent booksellers everywhere.
Seller: Dexter's Book Cellar, Stratford, CT, U.S.A.
UPDIKE, John.. HOPING FOR A HOOPOE. Poems.. Lond. Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1959.
Price: US$132.75 + shipping
Description: (rep) Or.cl. Dustjacket. 82pp. Dj sl.torn else a Very good copy. With inserted sticker signed by the author. The first edition of the author's first book. American novelist, poet, & short story writer John Updike is best known for his Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom books which chronicles the life a middle-class everyman. He gave the mundane a sensual beauty.
Seller: The Antique Bookshop & Curios (ANZAAB), Crows Nest, NSW, Australia
Updike, John. Hoping for a Hoopoe. Victor Gollancz, 1959.
Price: US$140.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Hardcover in jacket. There is a line of light browning spotting across center of back panel of jacket and a couple marks of the same below the line. Signed by Updike on the front endpaper.
Seller: Jay W. Nelson, Bookseller, IOBA, Austin, MN, U.S.A.
Price: US$180.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: A handsome first UK edition/first printing with little foxing at top of textblock, else Fine in alike dust-jacket with slight soiling and a small closed tear at top front. Signed and inscribed author John Updike directly on front free endpaper. First published in the US as The Carpentered Hen; "This is one of the most sparking collections of light verse for many a long day, and it may well come to rank among the classics of the genre. John Updike is an original: his humor is fresh and sponaneous, and the most improbable subjects can tickle his fancy." (from the dust-jacket) ; 8vo; Signed by Author
Seller: Books Tell You Why - ABAA/ILAB, Summerville, SC, U.S.A.
UPDIKE, John. Hoping for a Hoopoe. Victor Gollancz, London, 1959.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First English edition of the author's first book, published in America as *The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures*. A little foxing on the foredge else fine in fine dustwrapper. Signed by Updike. A very nice copy.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Updike, John. Hoping for a Hoopoe. Victor Gollancz, London, 1959.
Price: US$225.00 + shipping
Description: First British edition. Signed by John Updike on front free endpaper. [xii], 82 pp. Bound in publisher's black cloth lettered in gilt. Fine in dust jacket with light rubbing, tiny closed tear in the top of the front panel, else Fine. Updike's first work of poetry, published in the US as The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures, with an extra "Author's Note."
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
UPDIKE, John. Hoping for a Hoopoe. Victor Gollancz, London, 1959.
Price: US$225.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First English edition of the author's first book, published in America as *The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures*. Fine in fine dustwrapper with a single tiny tear. Signed by Updike. A lovely copy.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Updike, John. Hoping For A Hoopoe. Victor Gollancz, London, 1959.
Price: US$275.00 + shipping
Description: A collection of light verse inscribed by John Updike on the front free endpaper in blue ink: "Here it is The Carpentered Hen [underlined] for the Scranton Public Library and Marjorie Rees. John Updike." In black cloth, the book is in fine unread condition but for natural browning to the pages and a touch of a bump to the lower spine. The dustjacket is complete and in fine condition but for a touch of sunning to the spine and light soiling and wrinkling (at the upper edge). Overall a very nice copy.
Seller: Parrish Books, Sandy, OR, U.S.A.
Updike, John. Hoping For a Hoopoe. Victor Gollancz, London, 1959.
Price: US$295.00 + shipping
Condition: As New
Description: 82 pages. First English edition, first printing with the "12/6" price present on the bottom of the front flap. Signed by Updike on the title page. His first book, a collection of light verse issued in the U. S. as "The Carpentered Hen". Most were written when he was a young art student in England & a "Talk of the Town" reporter for The New Yorker, which published over 40 of them. As new book in an as new dust jacket. A beautiful copy!
Seller: Fireproof Books, MINNETONKA, MN, U.S.A.
UPDIKE, John. Hoping for a Hoopoe. Victor Gollancz, London, 1959.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First English edition of the author's first book, published in America as *The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures*. Fine in fine dustwrapper. Inscribed by the author to Herb Yellin: "for Herb Yellin, a real gem. John U." Herb Yellin was the founder and publisher of Lord John Press and the most frequent of Updike's fine press collaborators. He named his press after noting that the list of authors he wanted to publish all shared the same first name, chief among them John Updike, his favorite. *Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu* became the press's first book in 1977 with 10 more to follow over the next 23 years. Yellin's friendship with Updike grew with each new limited edition benefitting his already enormous Updike collection, with Updike himself contributing copies of new editions of his books - often inscribed. In a 2010 interview with Yellin he noted that Updike ".liked that if anything ever happened to his own collection, he had my collection on the opposite side of the country." A notable association.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.