Meunier

55614 — New York: The Viking Press 1973. First printing. Very good plus. Association copy first edition of this eclectic collection of remembrances scripts and other "leftovers" from Paul Krassner Neal Cassady Allen Ginsberg and others - presentation copy from Ken Kesey to his dear friend writer Larry McMurtry. Kesey and McMurtry's friendship was close and decades-long. They first met in the early 1960s at Stanford when both were on Stegner fellowships and Kesey was drafting what would become ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. When Kesey and his Merry Pranksters conducted their legendary cross-country trip in their infamous FURTHER bus they stopped in Texas to visit McMurtry. Nearly a decade later Kesey would feature McMurtry in this book KESEY'S GARAGE page 186 where he is one of just a few writers Kesey praises without reservation. He writes in typical Kesey form under a photo of two elaborately dressed Texas cowboys neither of whom are McMurtry: "This is the guy that wrote HUD. He can write Texas and our great southwest with an eye both on how it is and how it was; he sees whatever good there was in our fast fading lone prairie dream and sees as well the present plastic pestilence carpeting the plains like a variety of astro-turf crabgrass." This remains an excellent assessment of McMurtry's work. In a long remembrance of his friend published shortly after Kesey's death McMurtry wrote: "Ken Kesey was a very winning man and he won us." After Kesey's death McMurtry would later go on to marry his widow Norma Faye Kesey in 2011. A stupendous association. 11'' x 8.5''. Original color photographic wrappers from a photo by Keith Haxby. $3.95 cover price. xviii 238 pages. With Larry McMurtry's stirrup bookplate mounted to inside front cover. Review copy with publisher's slip laid in; review slip inscribed by Kesey: "To Larry McMurtry / KEN KESEY." Spine faded. Minor shelf and edgewear. The Viking Press unknown