[DYLAN, BOB]. Tarantula. London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1971.
FIRST U.K. EDITION, FIRST PRINTING. Hardcover with dust jacket, octavo (20.5 x 13.5 x 1.5 cm), pp. 137. Publisher's original covers, gilt titles to spine, supplied with original unclipped dust jacket. Condition: VERY GOOD. Slight browning to top edge of dust jacket, otherwise a fine copy, without previous ownership markings.
Notes: The first and only novel published by Bob Dylan, Tarantula is an experimental, stream-of-consciousness book of prose poetry. Heavily influenced by Beat writers such as Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg, and similar in style to the liner notes which Dylan wrote for his albums of around the same time (such as Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited). Although written in 1966, Dylan's motorcycle accident in that year postponed publication, and it was not properly published (other than in bootleg form) until 1971, by MacMillan in the States and (the copy for sale here) MacGibbon & Kee in UK (this being the first printing of the UK edition). The dust jacket design by Michael Jarvis and headshot of Dylan (reproduced on front & rear panels) by photographer and filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg (who also shot the cover photo for Blonde on Blonde).
