Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Malamud , Bernard. The Natural. ( Signed ).. Harcourt Brace, New York, 1952.
Price: US$6500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First edition , first printing , NY , 1952. A fine sharp book in the original binding. Clean with contents excellent. A wonderful example of this iconic story in 1st edition. In a fine original dust jacket. With original $3.00 price on jacket. This book has been SIGNED by the Author in Full on the title page. In an amazing clam shell slipcase with stamped inlay portrait of Roy Hobbs character modeled from the dust jacket on the front of clamshell box. Small name written on front end paper. PICTURES sent on request. A great book and an amazing film.
Seller: Somewhere In Time Books, St. James, NY, U.S.A.
Malamud, Bernard. The Natural (Inscribed Association Copy). Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952.
Price: US$6890.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First edition, first printing. Fine red cloth book with minor bumping to spine ends and tiny dent to top edge. Near Fine unclipped, bright jacket with minor crinkling to spine ends and the upper portion of rear panel, spine just a touch toned. A very nice copy of a book that s not as rare to find signed as folks would have you think, but truly rare with a solid provenance like this. *** Inscribed and dated in the month of publication(July, 1952) on the front free end paper for his high school English teacher, poet Florence Ripley Mastin, whose classes he described as unusually exciting. An important provenance involving a person uniquely influential in the author s writing development. And as you know, this book was the basis for the 1984 movie of the same name starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, and Kim Basinger. ***Please email us for better pricing.
Seller: Anniroc Rare Books, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.
Malamud, Bernard. THE NATURAL. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1952.
Price: US$7500.00 + shipping
Description: First printing of Malamud's debut novel, inscribed in the year of publication. A bright and attractive copy of the classic midcentury baseball fantasy, drawing on the American secular mythology of the game as well as the legend of the Fisher King and the quest for the Grail; while the shooting of Roy Hobbs draws on a real historical incident involving a Philadelphia player. The basis for the acclaimed 1984 film starring Robert Redford and still the best-known of Malamud's works. Uncommon signed, and scarce inscribed. 8'' x 5.25''. Original gray cloth with gilt-lettered spine. In original unclipped ($3.00) dust jacket. Issued with gray, red, and blue boards; no priority established. 237, [1] pages. Pen inscription to front free endpaper: "For Fred / with all good wishes / Cordially / Bern / August 1952". Boards lightly sunned and worn at extremities; front joint with minor crack starting. Minor edgewear to jacket, with a few creases and small closed tears to upper edge. Faint soiling to rear panel. Very good plus in very good plus jacket.
Seller: Type Punch Matrix, Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
Malamud, Bernard. The Natural. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1952.
Price: US$7500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, first printing. Signed by Bernard Malamud and inscribed to previous owners, "For Mr. and Mrs. Fritz Glanner for a most pleasant hour / Cordially / Bernard Malamud." Bound in publisher's gray cloth-covered boards with spine lettered in gilt. Near Fine with a shallow strip of fading to cloth at top and bottom edges, light soiling. Pages lightly toned. In an unclipped dust jacket with unnecessary tape reinforcements made to the top and bottom edge of the blank verso, light soiling and light wear, but otherwise Near Fine. Malamud's debut novel based on the bizarre shooting and comeback of Philadelphia Phillies player Eddie Waitkus. It served as the basis for the 1984 film bearing the same name, starring Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Malamud, Bernard. The Natural.. Harcourt Brace and Company, New York, 1952.
Price: US$7800.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of the author's first book, and one of the greatest baseball novels of all time. Octavo, original cloth. Advance review copy with the slip laid in for a release date of August 21, 1952. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper one month before the date of publication, "For Susie and Paul Cordially Bern July, 1952." The recipients, Suzanne and Paul Shrag were close friends of Malamud. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Cover art by Simon Goltche. Housed in a custom clamshell box. "Malamud has done something whichnow that he has done it!looks as if we have been waiting for it all our lives. He has really raised the whole passion and craziness and fanaticism of baseball as a popular spectacle to its ordained place in mythology" (Alfred Kazin). It was the basis for the 1984 film bearing the same name directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert Redford, Glenn Close, and Robert Duvall. Variety called the film "impeccably made . fable about success and failure in America." James Berardinelli praised The Natural as "[a]rguably the best baseball movie ever made." Sports writer Bill Simmons has argued, "Any 'Best Sports Movies' list that doesn't feature either Hoosiers or The Natural as the No. 1 pick shouldn't even count."
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
MALAMUD, Bernard. The Natural. Harcourt Brace and Company, New York, 1952.
Price: US$8500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition. Spine a little faded, near fine in the gray binding (one of three, with no priority) in a very near fine, price-clipped dustwrapper with a couple of tiny tears and nominal rubbing. Inscribed by the author in the year of publication: "For Charles Crow. Cordially Bern. July 1952." Crow was a friend of Malamud's from New York, and advised Malamud when he was applying for teaching positions, eventually accepting a position at Oregon State College. Crow's advice to Malamud is quoted in *Bernard Malamud: A Writer's Life* by Philip Maurice Davis. An especially nice copy of the author's first book, perhaps *the* classic baseball novel, and basis for the Barry Levinson film starring Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, and Kim Basinger.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Malamud, Bernard. The Natural. Harcourt Brace and Company, New York, 1952.
Price: US$10000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing. This copy is SIGNED and INSCRIBED by Bernard Malamud on the front endpaper. A beautiful dustjacket with the publisher's $2.00 printed price present. The book is bound in publisher's original red cloth with minor wear to the edges. The pages are clean with some discoloration to the front endpaper. There is NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A wonderful copy SIGNED by the author.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
MALAMUD, Bernard. The Natural (with Trial Jacket). New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952.
Price: US$15000.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition. Octavo.A remarkable copy of Malamud's classic first book, featuring a trial version of the now-iconic jacket design, printed before-letters in blue, rather than green, colorway. Accompanied by typescript letter signed by Gerald N. Greenberg of Harcourt, Brace and Company, suggesting that the jacket was likely used on a sample copy. This copy of the text near fine with some wear to corners; bound in the red cloth variant (in addition to those in blue and gray cloth, without priority). Some stress to front joint of jacket, with wear to corners and closed tear to rear panel; overall a bright and sharp specimen from an alternate history of American book design.
Seller: Harper's Books, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.