8vo. Original red cloth, printed orange spine label, top stained black (some staining, spine slanted, a touch of wear to extremities); dust jacket (some soiling with spine panel darkened, some chipping with short tears and a few minor losses, especially to spine ends not affecting text).

FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING (stated), with "thought" instead of "though" on p.115. West's classic novel revolves around "Hollywood’s lunatic fringe: the beauty-contest winners from county fairs; the broken-down vaudeville actors and emasculated cowboys... Above all, it is the story of the great mass of bored Middle-Westerners who come to California to die in the sun and find it a long, extremely dull process which they can only alleviate by outbreaks of violence” (front flap). White 5.