Fifty Years Adrift. HARRISON, George (ed.); TAYLOR, Derek.

First edition, number 41 of 2,000 copies signed by George Harrison, Derek Taylor (the Beatles' publicist), and the illustrator Larry Smith. Fifty Years Adrift is the autobiography of Taylor and the companion to I Me Mine. "Taylor was many things: an elegant writer who could flip into the crudest, earthiest language; a press officer who would go beyond the call of duty at the same time as he placed advertorial copy in the pop magazines of the time; a Beatle intimate taking remedial acid trips with John Lennon at the same time as he was an employee, if not a servant. He defined and extended what it was to be a PR at the same time as he retained a cool, journalistic eye. In the end, he preserved what was best about the high Sixties for future generations" (Savage). Jon Savage, "The fifth Beatle, Derek Taylor", GQ. Quarto. Colour frontispiece with tissue guard, 82 plates (18 colour), facsimile tickets tipped to pp. 177 and 343, illustrations and colour printing in text. With errata slip loosely inserted. Original half calf, spine with red label and lettered and decorated in gilt, brown cloth sides, sides and corners ruled with single gilt fillet, vignette on front cover in red and gilt, rear cover with Derek Taylor's signature stamped in gilt, illustrated endpapers from a design by Larry Smith, edges gilt, original red silk ribbon and colour concert ticket bookmark. With publisher's brown slipcase, paper title label. A few scuffs, spine sunned and with several splash marks: a near-fine copy in very good slipcase with some abrasions and sunning.