WILLIAM DEMBY—Beetlecreek—1969 PB—\"It\'d be hard to overpraise\"—THE NEW YORKER—VG For Sale

•For Your Consideration:•A Vintage (1969) VG/VG+ paperback edition of:• “BEETLECREEK”

(Bard Books, Avon, 1969) (Paperback, Second Edition Thus)•BYWILLIAM DEMBY

• ABOUT THIS TITLE:•“A young black boy encounters a bitter white recluse on the fringe of life, in a small West Virginia town. The old man, BILL TRAPP, his colorful carny life behind him, has lived for years by himself, mistrusting all who come near him. Now, he stumbles haltingly toward self-renewal. The boy, JOHNNY, is tormented by the secrets which baffle all fourteen-year-olds, and struggles to discover himself. Together, the two of them form an alliance which Beetlecreek, West Virginia, is not ready to tolerate—neither the whiles not the blacks. Finally, thwarted by Beetlecreek, the boy repays the town with an act of apparently meaningless, searing violence.”

—THE PUBLISHER

•“It would be hard to giveMR. DEMBYtoo much praise for the skill with which he has maneuvered the relationships in this book.”

—THE NEW YORKER

•“Witty, intelligent and worldly,WILLIAM DEMBY(1922-2013) may be the greatest neglected African-American writer of the 20th century.”

—CHARLES BAXTER

•“While he has never quite achieved the stature of such contemporaries as RICHARD WRIGHT and RALPH ELLISON,WILLIAM DEMBYis without question one of the most important African American authors of the twentieth century.His novels address issues of race and national identity with an unsurpassed power and command of imagery. An expatriate living in ROME much of his career,DEMBYbrought to his writing a unique insider/outsider perspective on the American experience.”

—BOB JACOBSON, ENYCLOPEDIA (WEBSITE)

•“Both a critique of racial hypocrisy and a new direction for the African-American novel, it occupies fresh territory that is neither the ghetto realism of RICHARD WRIGHT nor the ironic modernism of RALPH ELLISON.”

—UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI

•“DEMBY’s troubled townsfolk of the West Virginia mining region foreshadow present dilemmas. The pressing and resisting social forces in this season of our discontent and the fatal paralysis of those of us unable or unwilling to act are clearly anticipated with the dependable second sight of a true artist.”

—ARNA BONTEMPS

—STEVE KEME, MOSAIC MAGAZINE

•“Each [of his three novels is] brilliant and unique.BEETLECREEK, published by Rinehart in 1950 while the Pittsburgh-raised World War II Army veteran and Fisk University graduate was living in Italy,is a sharp, nuanced portrait of marginal lives, white and black in small-town West Virginia.”

—BRIAN BERGER, HILOBROW (WEBSITE)

•“An impressive achievement…succeeds in transforming race into a universal symbol.”

—ROBERT BONE, TRIQUARTERLY

•
•For other details about this book, please see below.
•

AUTHOR:WILLIAM DEMBYAFTERWORD:HERBERT HILL

TYPE:MASS-MARKET PAPERBACKPAGES:190

PUBLISHER, LOCALE, & YEAR:Bard Books / Avon (New York), 1969EDITION:Second Edition**RE: On the Copyright Page, the statement “Second Printing (Bard Edition), October 1969.”

FIRST PUBLISHED:1950NOTE:This book is NOT an ex-library copy or a Book of the Month Club edition.ISBN:N/A (Pre-ISBN)

CONDITION OF WRAPS/COVERS: VERY GOOD.Bottom corner on front & bottom spine tip are rubbed; other spine tip & corners are bumped. Light age-toning runs up along the spine on back. Light scratching on sides & moderate edgewear.CONDITION of BOOK ITSELF/INTERIOR: VERY GOOD / VERY GOOD PLUS.
Book is square. Spine is tight with a few long creases. Text-block edges & endpapers are moderately age-toned. Pages themselves are also moderately age-toned but bright & clean with no writing, no doodling, no tears, no stains, no foxing, & no foul odor. Despite the creases on the spine, it’s hard to tell that this book was read.SHIPPING NEWS:This book will be wrapped with care before being shipped in a cushioned & sturdy mailer. THANK YOU!

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