First edition. 8vo. Red boards in pictorial dustwrapper. Inscribed by the author "For John Chilton best wishes from Alan Sillitoe" to the title page. A near fine copy, glue remnants and bookplate of Tom Maschler to front pastedown, otherwise clean, in a very near fine dustwrapper, a trifle dusty.

A nice dual association copy of the 'Angry Young Men' author Alan Sillitoe's debut novel. It is inscribed to his friend John Chilton, a prominent 20th century jazz and blues trumpeter. The young author and musician both moved within the 1950s London cultural scene, which is where they most likely met. Sillitoe admitted in his autobiography Life Without Armour (1995) that he did not particularly like jazz, but the film adaptations of his novels featured pioneering jazz soundtracks, and he even authorised the composition of jazz albums and suites inspired by his works.
This copy is from the library of Tom Maschler (managing director of Jonathan Cape from 1966 to 1988). Maschler, who, when at MacGibbon & Kee, had edited a compilation-cum-manifesto of 'Angry Young' authors called 'Declaration' in 1957, read the manuscript of Sillitoe's novel after being sent it by his agent. In Sillitoe's autobiography, he describes Maschler's visit to Majorca, where he was living in 1957, to discuss changes: "Tom Maschler came... to talk about what he had seen of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. I listened, but was unable to show any enthusiasm, wanting a publisher to say 'Hats off!' about my novel, or not touch it at all. Maschler may have looked on the book as something worth influencing, but if so it was difficult for me to feel in any way flattered by such interest. I had not been working unrewarded for eight years, and learning to write the hard way, to be told by an editor how to revise my novel."
Sillitoe was unconcerned when MacGibbon & Kee rejected the book, which was eventually published in its raw form with Allen.

Stock ID: 46972