in watermelon sugar by richard brautigan

In Watermelon Sugar, my favorite of Brautigan’s books, is a funny little dislocated story about people living in a commune called iDEATH. They’ve sometimes been called lightweight or dated, but his cult status has held nearly forty years after his death, so it seems his work will stand the test of time.

His books had a groovy design, which he controlled, and a kind of Hemingway-influenced minimalism.

He went into decline in the late seventies and early eighties and died by suicide in 1984 at age forty-nine. I hope this works out.”īrautigan achieved literary fame after his second novel, 1967’s Trout Fishing in America, captured the hearts of the counterculture and sold two million copies.

It is so far to travel, and we have nothing here to travel, except watermelon sugar. The next lines read: “Wherever you are, we must do the best we can. I will tell you about it because I am here and you are distant.” These are the opening lines of In Watermelon Sugar, the third novel by Richard Brautigan (1935–1984), a poet who was published twenty-three times in Rolling Stone between 19 and who has been called the last of the Beats. Barber 196.“In watermelon sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar. He spent two decades researching and writing Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan, published in 2012 to great acclaim. Provenance: From the collection of Montana author, screenwriter, and outdoorsman William Hjortsberg (1941-2017), a central figure in the Montana Gang, and Brautigan's long-time friend and neighbor in Pine Creek. This edition is also the first trade hardcover edition for all three titles (all published separately as hardcovers by Jonathan Cape in 1970). Attractive copy of this omnibus collecting three titles originally published by the Four Seasons Foundation between 1967-68. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $6.95), light wear to extremities, with some corresponding wrinkling to lower corners, and a tiny split at lower rear flap fold Near Fine.

Spine ends gently nudged, trivial wear to lower board edges, with lower corners gently tapped (though still sharp) Near Fine. Laid into this copy is a contemporary black & white photo of Brautigan (measuring 3.25' x 4.5'), along with a cancelled check for $500 made out to Enrico's Coffee House. Octavo (21.5cm) pictorial paper-covered boards dustjacket ,112, ,108, ,138,pp.

In watermelon sugar by richard brautigan