[DYLAN, BOB]. Tarantula. London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1971.
Hardcover. First edition, first printing. Cloth-bound with dust jacket. Octavo (205 x 135 mm.), pp. 137. Publisher's original cloth, gilt titles to spine, supplied with original unclipped dust jacket. Condition: NEAR FINE. Binding tight and secure, the edges and points sharp. Covers and contents very clean indeed, the fore edge with a little faint marking. The dust jacket excellent and protected in a Mylar cover. Without previous ownership markings. Scarce thus.
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).
