HAM ON RYE

First edition, first printing. Paperback original, issued simultaneously with the hardback and limited signed editions. Original illustrated card wrappers lettered to the spine. Turquoise endpapers. Title page printed in full colour. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout. The covers and page block edges are just a touch dusty, spine a little toned. A nice copy.

Bukowski's fourth novel. A semi-autobiographical account of coming-of-age in Los Angeles during the Great Depression. Printed July 1982 in Santa Barbara and Ann Arbor for the Black Sparrow Press by Graham Mackintosh & Edwards Brothers Inc. Design by Barbara Martin. In addition to the edition in wrappers, there were 750 trade hardback copies, 350 hardbacks numbered and signed by the author, and 126 numbered handbound copies each with an original painting by Charles Bukowski.