first edition
1979 · New York
by Hasford, Gustav
New York: Harper & Row, 1979. First printing. Near fine in near fine jacket.. First edition of the ex-Marine's brief and brutal semi-autobiographical novel — basis for Stanley Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET. Hasford joined the Marine Corps in 1966, shortly after having "refused to graduate from high school" because he "didn't want to validate what they were doing." Assigned to a North Carolina base as a military journalist, he applied to go to Vietnam — with only ten months left of service — out of curiosity; while still there, he joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War and contributed a poem to the first anthology of writings by veterans of that war.
During the several post-Marine years of writing THE SHORT-TIMERS, Hasford supported himself as a used bookstore clerk, editor of fetish magazines, and sometime roommate of Harlan Ellison, who had previously advised Hasford to give up and get out of the writing business (Ross). The manuscript endured several rounds of rejection due to subject matter most publishers then considered "box office poison" before its eventual acceptance by Harper. More good fortune followed with Kubrick's purchase of the film rights; Hasford struggled for and eventually won a co-writing credit for the FULL METAL JACKET screenplay, which closely replicates much of the novel's harrowing boot camp sequence. A bright copy of "the best work of fiction about the Vietnam War" (Newsweek). 8.25'' x 5.5''. Original quarter black cloth with red boards. Black endpapers. In original unclipped ($8.95) pictorial dust jacket by John Sposato. 154 pages. With publisher's advance marketing sheet laid in. Scattered foxing to top edge of textblock. Light edgewear and a few tiny chips to jacket and a barely visible tape repair to verso. Sharp. (Inventory #: 52899)
During the several post-Marine years of writing THE SHORT-TIMERS, Hasford supported himself as a used bookstore clerk, editor of fetish magazines, and sometime roommate of Harlan Ellison, who had previously advised Hasford to give up and get out of the writing business (Ross). The manuscript endured several rounds of rejection due to subject matter most publishers then considered "box office poison" before its eventual acceptance by Harper. More good fortune followed with Kubrick's purchase of the film rights; Hasford struggled for and eventually won a co-writing credit for the FULL METAL JACKET screenplay, which closely replicates much of the novel's harrowing boot camp sequence. A bright copy of "the best work of fiction about the Vietnam War" (Newsweek). 8.25'' x 5.5''. Original quarter black cloth with red boards. Black endpapers. In original unclipped ($8.95) pictorial dust jacket by John Sposato. 154 pages. With publisher's advance marketing sheet laid in. Scattered foxing to top edge of textblock. Light edgewear and a few tiny chips to jacket and a barely visible tape repair to verso. Sharp. (Inventory #: 52899)
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