Item #6448 I Am the Beautiful Stranger. Rosalyn Drexler.
I Am the Beautiful Stranger

I Am the Beautiful Stranger

New York: Grossman Publishers, 1965. 1st Edition. Octavo, publisher’s light gray cloth over mustard and red paper covered boards, spine stamped in fuschia and orange, upper board stamped in orange, black endpapers, original illustrated dust jacket.

"Crazy Selma, that’s me, fighting my way through the fog." First edition of artist and author Rosalyn Drexler’s debut novel. Written as an unexpurgated, secret diary, the bildungsroman follows Selma, a precocious and difficult teenager, as she confides her day-to-day (often debasing) experiences growing up as a Jew in the Bronx. While described by contemporary critics as a female Holden Caulfield, the tragicomic Selma not only grapples with her disgust at the "phonies" populating the looming world of adulthood, but is enticed by the emotional and sexual adventures the future holds. Drexler went on to publish several novels, most under the pseudonym Julia Sorel – including the novelization of Rocky (1976) – but is best known as a pioneering pop artist. In 2007 a retrospective of her paintings from the 60s was held at Pace Gallery. The dust jacket reproduces a painting by Drexler; author photo by Robert R. McElroy. Some chipping to spine-ends of soiled, price-clipped dust jacket. Very good. Item #6448

$200.00

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