The Immortal – Walter Ross (Simon and Schuster, 1958)

I’m still not really coming to terms with Amazon, or maybe it’s just that there are quite a few editions of many of these old books that makes it a bit difficult to find your way sometimes. For example, there is about 35 copies available of Stendhal’s The Red and the Black on Amazon. And even though the general product details says the publisher is Doubleday and the cover image is the correct one all of the copies listed are definitely not the ones with the Warhol cover. And then there’s the whole thing with new copies, used copies and collectibles and so on… I still find this somewhat confusing and annoying because it generates a lot of emails back and forth trying to get to see images of the actual book that’s listed. And most of the time all this correspondence is usually in vain since the books are wrongly listed.

But it’s not all bad. On the odd occasion you can actually make some really nice finds. And this was one of those times. This was listed for $15 and without any reference to Warhol so naturally i initially thought that it was one of the other editions. But to my surprise it turned out to be the one i was looking for. As with many of the other dust jackets i don’t really know how rare this is considered to be. I’ve seen a few here and there on ebay and there has been one on Etsy for quite some time. Regarding the price i’m not sure what’s fair either, there are a few on abebooks listed in the hundreds of dollars and i’ve also seen some on ebay with real high prices that didn’t sell. There is also one on Harper’s Books with an asking price of $350. I’m guessing though that this is quite possible to find without going bankrupt and for only $15 i once again think i got one hell of a deal. Apparently there is also a pocket edition published by Corgi Books a few years later in 1960 that has the same Warhol image on the cover but with a different cover design and coloring. This pocket edition i haven’t really looked for since i’ve mainly been focused on hard covers and the only copy of this i’ve ever seen is also on Etsy, and it’s still there now.

Another thing with Amazon is that i haven’t figured out is why so many sellers don’t offer international shipping. Some also seem clueless as to why they don’t and many also seem totally uninterested in changing their terms or what you call it through Amazon to make is possible. So, as was the case with Love is a Pie i once again i had to enlist the services of Frank Edwards and ship it via him to me in Sweden. Even with the extra cost for double shipping i’m still more than pleased with what i ended up paying for it. Thanks again for your help, Frank!

When in comes to the condition it was listed as “acceptable” but as far as i’m concerned that was somewhat of an understatement. It isn’t perfect by any means but the small white’ish discoloration along the center and left hand side isn’t really as bad as it looks in the images. It’s actually worsened quite a bit by the protective plastic cover. The colors are still decently bright and there is no issues with the bindning or anything else. And as usual “beggars can’t be choosers” so all in all a great addition to my collection. And i’m no expert on Warhol’s style and how it evolved during the years but to me the drawing on the cover is very similar to the ones on The Nation’s Nightmare released a few years earlier, but i don’t know…

When it comes to what’s behind the cover this is also the first of the “Warhol books” that i plan on reading. I’m having a tough time finding some good information on the author Walter Ross but i read somewhere that he worked at Warner Brothers and knew James Dead. And as i understand it the book is basically based on the life of James Dead with each chapter having different characters recounting their memories of the main character “Johnny Preston”, and then this is mixed up with some fictional news reports and stuff like that. Sounds pretty interesting…