PEARCE, Donn.
Cool Hand Luke.
"What we've got here is failure to communicate": First Edition of Cool Hand Luke; Signed by Donn Pearce and Lou Antonio
New York: Charles Scribner's & Sons, 1965.
$7,500.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-147437
* Custom Clamshell Boxes are hand made by the Harcourt Bindery upon request and take approximately 60 days to complete
First edition of this classic work, basis for the 1967 film starring Paul Newman, George Kennedy and Lou Antonio. Octavo, original cloth. Boldly signed by Donn Pearce on the front free endpaper and signed by actor Lou Antonio on the half-title page, "Lou Antonio 'Koko' Stay Cool Matthew." Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light shelfwear. Jacket design by Ivy Riekstins. A unique example.
Out of his experiences working on a chain gang, Donn Pearce created Cool Hand Luke, the larger-than-life war hero--Good Guy Number One--turned drunkard, vandal, and convict. A blasphemer and "pretty evil feller" who "could work the hardest, eat the mostest, and tell the biggest lies." Luke's outsized feats of gambling and gluttony--he bets Society Red, a college man from Boston, that he can eat fifty eggs--and his harrowing escapes and recaptures are recounted by Dragline, who followed Luke in his last, fatal escape attempt and who basks in Luke's reflected glory. To the convicts left behind on the chain gang, Luke has become the hope of freedom and defiance that they dare not act upon themselves. Luke's refusal to "git his mind right" and submit to the sadistic discipline of the Walking Boss becomes part of their mythology of survival. "An impressive novel . . . the most brutal and authentic account of a road gang that we have had" (New York Times). It was the basis for the 1967 film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance.
Cool Hand Luke.
$7,500.00
In Stock
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