Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Burroughs, William S.. NAKED LUNCH. New York: Grove Press, 1962.
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 8vo. First US edition, thirteenth print. Inscribed by Burroughs to a Cleveland bookseller on the title page. Quarter-bound in black cloth, black boards, gilt titling on the spine. Small bumps to the corners of the back panel. Upper edge shows damp stains. End-papers shows age related tanning. The DJ is not price-clipped. It shows light wear, dusting, and some chips; and its reverse shows tanning. Loosely laid in is a 1975 postcard with a picture of the author taken by Richard Avedon. Overall, a VG+ book in a VG+ jacket.
Seller: Peter Keisogloff Rare Books, Inc., Brecksville, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$1700.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Promotional brochure. 16pp. Stapled wrappers. Fine. An excerpt from *Naked Lunch*, distributed by Grove Press, along with comments from various writers including Terry Southern, E.S. Selden, John Ciardi, Norman Mailer, Robert Lowell, and Jack Kerouac. This copy Signed by Burroughs on the front wrap, below his printed name. Reportedly one of abut 100 copies printed, very scarce signed.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Burroughs, William S.. Naked Lunch. Grove Press, New York, 1962.
Price: US$1750.00 + shipping
Description: Black cloth backed boards, light spotting on the top edge, a fine copy in lightly used first issue dust jacket. Inscribed by Burroughs on the title page. 3500 copies were printed of this edition, fewer than of the Olympia Press first edition. It contains also the first book appearances of Burroughs's "Deposition: Testimony concerning a Sickness," and "Letter from a Master Addict to Dangerous Drugs." Maynard and Miles A2b.
Seller: Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books (ABAA), CHESTER, CT, U.S.A.
Burroughs, William S. Naked Lunch.. Grove Press, Inc, New York, 1962.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: First American edition, first issue jacket with no zip code on rear panel and no roman numerals on lower spine near back panel of Burroughs' classic novel. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by William S. Burroughs on the title page. Fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket with a touch of rubbing. Included is the original prospectus issued by Grove Press prior to publication. Photograph of Burroughs on the rear panel by Martha Rocher. An exceptional example, scarce with the original prospectus. Naked Lunch is considered Burroughs' seminal work. Extremely controversial in both its subject matter and its use of obscene language (something Burroughs recognized and intended), the book was banned in Boston and Los Angeles in the United States, and several European publishers were harassed. It was one of the more recent American books over which an obscenity trial was held. The book was banned in Boston in 1962 due to obscenity (notably child murder and acts of pedophilia), making it among the last works to be banned in that city, but that decision was reversed in 1966 by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The Appeals Court found the book did not violate obscenity statutes, as it was found to have some social value. The hearing included testimony in support of the work by Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer. Burroughs states in his introduction that Jack Kerouac suggested the title. "The title means exactly what the words say: naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork." In a June 1960 letter to Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac said that he was pleased that Burroughs had credited him with the title. He states that Ginsberg misread "Naked Lust" from the manuscript, and only he noticed. Kerouac did not specify which manuscript and critics could only speculate until 2003 when Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris established that, in his Lower East Side apartment in fall 1953, Ginsberg had been reading aloud to Kerouac from the manuscript of Queer, which Burroughs had just brought with him from Mexico City.[8] For the next five years, Burroughs used the title to refer to a three-part work made up of 'Junk,' 'Queer' and 'Yage,' corresponding to his first three manuscripts, before it came to describe the book later published as Naked Lunch, which was based largely on his 1957 'Interzone' manuscript. It was named by Time Magazine's "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005". In 1991, David Cronenberg directed a film of the same name based on the novel and other Burroughs writings.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
BURROUGHS, William. Naked Lunch. Grove Press, Inc., 1962.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First American edition. 8vo. Dust jacket unclipped with $6.00 price (3 inch closed tear to front panel; few small spots at foredge). Very good. 255 pages. Signed and inscribed on title page by Burroughs - "to. Al Purdy William S. Burroughs June 1, 1981. Provenance: Heritage Book Shop, Los Angeles with their original description with price of $3,000.00.
Seller: Houle Rare Books/Autographs/ABAA/PADA, Palm Springs, CA, U.S.A.
Burroughs, William S.. Naked Lunch. Grove Press, New York, 1962.
Price: US$2750.00 + shipping
Description: Black cloth backed boards, fine copy in slightly used first issue dust jacket. Inscribed by Burroughs, and with a typed postcard signed, agreeing to sign the copy. 3500 copies were printed of this edition, fewer than of the Olympia Press first edition. It contains also the first book appearances of Burroughs's "Deposition: Testimony concerning a Sickness," and "Letter from a Master Addict to Dangerous Drugs." With a copy of a 1992 edition inscribed by Burroughs to biographer Virginia Spencer Carr "with shared memories of Paul Bowles and old Tangier," together in a cloth clamshell box with leather label.
Seller: Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books (ABAA), CHESTER, CT, U.S.A.
Burroughs, William S. The Naked Lunch. Grove Press, New York, 1962.
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing SIGNED by William S. Burroughs. A beautiful copy. This ORIGINAL dustjacket is vibrant in color with minor wear to the edges. The book is in excellent condition. The binding is tight with NO cocking or leaning and the boards are crisp with slight wear. The pages are clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. Overall, a lovely copy SIGNED by the author in collector's condition. We buy SIGNED Burroughs First Editions.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.