Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: 8vo. Pp. [3], 4-274, [2], including a one page, "Note about the Author." Bound in dark blue cloth with the authors initials in gilt on the front board, gilt lettering on spine. A bright copy in a fresh dust jacket, top corner of front flap clipped as issued, with $6.95 price intact and "2/69" code on the rear flap. Laid in is a Will Rogers First Day Cancel, 1948, postmarked Claremore, Oklahoma, signed in pencil by Philip Roth. First printing of the first edition. The author's third full-length novel, which attracted significant controversy due to pubescent narrator Alexander Portnoy's frank and obsessive focus on onanism and, into adulthood, his sexual exploits. Beyond the novel's prurient aspects, Jewish groups protested an unflattering portrayal, in their interpretation, of Roth's New Jersey demimonde. The novel was banned by many libraries and provoked arguments about censorship.The condition of this copy is notably clean, with the well known dust jacket, designed by Paul Bacon, now preserved in a removable, clear archival sleeve.
Seller: Long Brothers Fine & Rare Books, ABAA, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Roth, Philip. Portnoy's Complaint. Random House, 1969.
Price: US$285.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Edition limited to 600 copies. In a Very Good slipcase with red paper over cardboard worn through along about three inches of edge. Slight browning on spine.
Seller: Jay W. Nelson, Bookseller, IOBA, Austin, MN, U.S.A.
Roth, Philip. Portnoy's Complaint. Random House [1969], 1969.
Price: US$375.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Hardcover. Limited edition, #7 of 600 copies signed by Roth on the limitation page. 8.25" x 5.5". XII, 274, [4] pp. Publisher's cloth boards in a cream colored DJ. Housed in a red paper-covered slip case. Minor spots of foxing to head of spine and rear board; Very minor wear to top edge of DJ; a few small, superficial stains to front panel; some toning to front, rear, and spine panels of DJ. Some wear and rubbing to slipcase. Overall, a Near Fine copy in a slipcase showing faint staining and wear.
Seller: Brattle Book Shop [ABAA, ILAB], Boston, MA, U.S.A.
ROTH, Philip. PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT. Random House (1969), New York, 1969.
Price: US$437.50 + shipping
Description: Copy #33 of 600 SIGNED by the author of the book that gained him a wide readership and that was made into a funny film starring Richard Benjamin as the neurotic young man obsessed with sex. Spine gilt dull. Near Fine, lacking the dustwrapper, but in a Near Fine slipcase
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
Roth, Philip. Portnoy's Complaint. Random House, NY, 1969.
Price: US$499.99 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Cream cloth titled in gilt, red topstain. Limited edition # 215 signed by Roth to the limitation page. Bookplate to fep and 6 small tape ghosts to ffep else unmarked, tight and square; hint of toning to cloth at heel. The DJ is lightly toned, with a smudge to spine. The original slipcase is slightly rubbed/soiled and numbered to heel. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; Signed by Author
Seller: curtis paul books, inc., Northridge, CA, U.S.A.
Roth, Philip. PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT. Random House, New York, 1969.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Description: Signed limited first edition of one of Roth's best, most-loved, and most controversial novels. Roth's much-praised, much-hated, much-discussed comic novel detailing the familial, sexual, scatological, spiritual, and other travails of the eponymous narrator. Donaldson is the author of respected biographies of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and authored a 1970 article on Roth in the journal Contemporary Literature. "This is the novel which is said to do for masturbation what Melville did for the whale" (Anthony Burgess). The limited edition is quite scarce in both the original jacket and slipcase. 8.25'' x 5.5''. Original cream textured cloth, spine and front board stamped in gilt. In original cream dust jacket. In original red paper slipcase with number handwritten to spine (83). Red endpapers, red top edge, fore-edge machine deckle. [10], 274, [2] pages. Signed by Roth on limitation page, numbered 83. Jacket with toned spine, uneven toning around joints. Book clean with only light toning to spine. Near fine in very good jacket, near fine slipcase.
Seller: Type Punch Matrix, Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$595.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 1st Trade Edition/Stated 1st Printing. SIGNED by PHILIP ROTH on a bookplate attached to title page (signature only). Black boards; gold lettering, red topstain. some spine slant and boards lightly soiled.$6.95 price present on DJ flap; mylar protected; lightly rubbed. From the famous 1972 film version of the novel: Attached to front end page is a card SIGNED by RICHARD BENJAMIN (played 'Alexander Portnoy'). and a card SIGNED by LEE GRANT (played 'Sophie Portnoy'). Attached to first free-page is a color photo card SIGNED by KEVIN CONWAY (played 'Smolka' in film). Also attached to third blank page is a card SIGNED and inscribed by KAREN BLACK (played 'Mary Jane Reid'). (Bonus: Comes with a unsigned 1st printing hardcover copy of Roth's novel "Everyman"). Also laid-in is the original Wall Street Journal memorial artical on death of Roth, by Cynthia Ozick, entitled "In Praise of Zest and Laughter". Unique signed copy for the Roth--Portnoy fan or collector.NOTE: No international orders for this book. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Daniel Montemarano, Newfield, NJ, U.S.A.
Roth, Philip. Portnoy's Complaint. Random House, 1969.
Price: US$600.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: SIGNED first printing, as stated on copyright page. Signed by author on tipped-in page. Book near fine. Dust jacket very good, very minor wear, small water stain along front top edge, front flap clipped but not price-clipped. Housed in custom-made slipcase.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
Roth, Philip. Portnoy's Complaint. Random House, 1969.
Price: US$600.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The signed limited edition, one of 600 copies, in original publisher's slipcase. This is number 70 of the 600. No dust jacket. Signed Limited Edition. Ruggedly bound in heavy rough oatmeal-colored cloth and stamped brightly in gold on the front boards and on the spine. Top edge stained red. With red endpapers. Very good or better condition with some slight staining on spine and slight soiling on bottom of slipcase.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
ROTH, Philip. Portnoy's Complaint. New York: Random House, 1969, 1969.
Price: US$600.00 + shipping
Description: Portnoy's Complaint - Signed Limited Edition ROTH, Philip. Portnoy's Complaint. New York: Random House, [1969]. Signed Limited Edition. Octavo (8 1/8 x 5 5/8 inches; 207 x 143 mm.). [x], [1]-275, [2] pp. "Six hundred copies have been specially printed and bound. Each copy is signed by the author and numbered "32" [signed] "Philip Roth". Publisher's cream buckram, front cover and spine lettered in gilt, red endpapers, top edge stained red. A fine copy in the original red cardboard slipcase with matching limitation number on spine. Portnoy,s Complaint. "A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature." Philip Milton Roth (1933-2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction - often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey - is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, for its "sensual, ingenious style" and for its provocative explorations of American identity. He first gained attention with the 1959 short story collection Goodbye, Columbus, which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Ten years later, he published the bestseller Portnoy's Complaint. Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's literary alter ego, narrates several of his books. A fictionalized Philip Roth narrates some of his others, such as the alternate history The Plot Against America.
Seller: David Brass Rare Books, Inc., Calabasas, CA, U.S.A.
Philip Roth. Portnoy's Complaint. Random House, New York, 1969.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Fine in very lovely near fine dust jacket. Signed by Roth on the title page. An uncommonly fresh copy becoming harder to find in such nice condition.
Seller: Courtside Books, Medford, NJ, U.S.A.
Philip Roth. Portnoy's Complaint. Random House, New York, 1969.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 1st Edition. Hardcover. Signed limited edition #456/600. Housed in publishers slip case. Some fading to slip case, top and bottom cracked at extremities, shelf wear. Small water mark on lower spine of dust jacket, toning to dust jacket.
Seller: Lyons Fine Books, Neenah, WI, U.S.A.