Myra Breckinridge.

VIDAL, Gore.

Item Number: 88562

Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1968.

First edition of this satirical novel by written in the form of a diary. Octavo, black cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author, “Bill best wishes Gore.” The recipient, Bill Keene was a television and radio personality who became famous in the Los Angeles market as a traffic and weather announcer. He was particularly known for his colorful humorous traffic reports which included numerous puns and he became a fixture in Los Angeles broadcasting.  Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing. A very nice example.

Described by the critic Dennis Altman as "part of a major cultural assault on the assumed norms of gender and sexuality which swept the western world in the late 1960s and early 1970s," the book's major themes are feminism, transsexuality, American expressions of machismo and patriarchy, and deviant sexual practices. Harold Bloom cites Myra Breckinridge as a canonical work in his book The Western Canon. Made into the 1970 film, directed by Michael Sarne, and featured Raquel Welch in the title role. It also starred John Huston as Buck Loner, Mae West as Leticia Van Allen, Farrah Fawcett, Rex Reed, Roger Herren, and Roger C. Carmel. Tom Selleck made his film debut in a small role as one of Leticia's "studs".