The Adventures of Wesley Jackson

Saroyan, William. The Adventures of Wesley Jackson. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1946. First edition. Large octavo. 285, [1]pp. Original illustrated dust-jacket over blue cloth, with gold lettering on spine. William Saroyan’s anti-war novel “The Adventures of Wesley Jackson,” was based on the author’s war experience, and aroused controversy before it hit the market. He wrote it in 1944 while stationed in London. Saroyan hated the Army and the war that had forced him into military service. He had been drafted as a buck private and although he had it soft, serving first in Astoria, living most of the time at the Lombardy Hotel, and then in London, where he hobnobbed with the literary set and shared an office and a flat with fellow author Irwin Shaw, he resented his time in the service as an intolerable imposition on his freedom. The Army saw his novel with its tirades against the war and the US military as just short of treason. True first edition, as stated in the colophon. Price still present on front flap ($2.75). Minor creasing and tiny closed tears along upper margin of dust-jacket. DJ in overall good+, binding and interior in very good condition. g+ to vg. Hardcover. (38277) $65