Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters ALGREN, Nelson American Literature,Books

8vo. Quarter black cloth with gilt spine lettering and orange paper over boards, pictorial dust jacket. 213pp. Near fine/very good. Mild jacket edgewear and touch of rubbing. A tight and quite nice first edition of this collection of 15 short stories (to cite jacket front panel) "Including stories by Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, and the complete text of the famous short novel 'Among the Dangs' by George P. Elliott" -- along with Terry Southern, Chandler Brossard, James Leo Herlihy, Bruce Jay Friedman, Algren himself and other notables. Front pastedown bears a rarely-seen printed bookplate used by Algren in later years, a facsimile of his typical sketch of the backside of a seated cat with his written "Ex Libris" above and signature below -- all printed and none of it actually in his hand, of course. This attractive copy is part of a complete collection -- one copy of each edition of this title, the other four of which are paperbacks. This group of five titles comes from the collection of Richard F. Bales, author of two titles about Algren, the second being "Nelson Algren: His Life, Work and Colleagues" (McFarland & Company, 2024), in which the chapter "The Story of Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters" spells out the convoluted history and idiosyncrasies of this title. These editions are all 12mo, all bear stiff pictorial wrappers (different graphics for each), and all rate as very good. As follows, chronologically: 1) New York: Lancer Books, [1962]. First edition, first printing -- true first appearance of this title in any form, preceding the hard edition and boldly SIGNED by Algren in black ink at top of title page. 2) London: Hamilton & Co., [1964]. 3) New York: Panther Books, [1965]. 4) New York: Lancer Books, [1972]. An unusual complete set of every edition of this title -- one hardbound and four paperbacks. Bruccoli's "Nelson Algren: A Descriptive Bibliography" includes a small section on this title and its editions, but contains errors and inaccuracies and seemingly completely overlooks one of these paperback editions.Panther.