I love you, Norman Mailer!

Apparently I've been sitting on a (very) small fortune for awhile now.

While I was Denton last spring looking at UNT's grad program, I visited a small used books store near the campus. I'd been working at the Ransom Center that semester cataloguing the Mailer archive, but never read his stuff, so I thought I'd pick up a copy of his most famous novel, The Naked and the Dead. I bought a hard cover copy for I think $5, since they didn't have any in paperback, then promptly put it on my bookshelf and forgot about it.

Yesterday, as I was perusing the new Mailer exhibit at the HRC (y'all should check it out), I noticed that their first edition copy looked an awful lot like my copy. I went home and did some online research via my pal google. According to The Manhatten Rare Book Company, PBA Auctions, alibris.com, and a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign literature researcher, I have a gem on my hands: a first edition, first printing, and near-perfect condition copy. I don't think anyone ever actually read it; the spine isn't even cracked, and the dust jacket only has a tiny tear in one corner. All of the indications of a first printing copy are there though, including the Rinehart and Co. seal on the copyright page. Some of the prices seem ridiculous ($4,999?) but it seems to average at somewhere near $1,000, especially for this condition.

Even better, Norman Mailer himself is visiting the HRC in November, and since I work there (and will probably be sent to fetch him food), I'm going to ask him to sign it. How awesome is this?

Excited!,
Tiffany