BURROUGHS (WILLIAM S.) The Naked Lunch, FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COP...

BURROUGHS (WILLIAM S.) The Naked Lunch, FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY TO HILARY GERRARD, inscribed on title-page 'For Hilary Gerrard/ William S Burroughs', title within green ornamental border, publisher's green printed wrappers, rear cover with price 1500 Francs amended with a hand-written label to '18NF' (some slight creases to spine but otherwise fine), original purple and white dust-jacket designed by Brion Gysin (one small crease to spine, otherwise fine in protective clear wrapper), 8vo, Paris, Olympia Press, 1959 Footnotes: THE NAKED LUNCH INSCRIBED BY BURROUGHS TO HILARY GERRARD: A FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION IN THE DUST-JACKET. Burroughs's semi-autobiographical second published novel again follows the character 'William Lee', this time from USA to Mexico and Tangiers. Burroughs lived for a time in Tangiers and wrote much of the novel there. After it was initially rejected for publication by the Olympia Press, and following the eventual failure of the bizarre obscenity court case brought by the US Post Office against a new magazine Big Table for publishing extracts, Burroughs's taboo-breaking masterpiece was finally published by Olympia in July 1959. Six months later the Franc was devalued, and unsold copies of the book were re-priced, usually bearing an '18 NF' stamp on top of the original price, rather than having a label affixed as is the case with this copy. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: • • Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing