Oakley Hall's legendary "Warlock" revisits and reworks the traditional conventions of the Western to present a raw, funny, hypnotic, ultimately devastating picture of American unreality. First published in the 1950s, at the height of the McCarthy era, Warlock is not only one of the most original and entertaining of modern American novels but a lasting contribution to American fiction. "Tombstone, Arizona, during the 1880's is, in ways, our national Camelot: a never-never land where American virtues are embodied in the ...
Read More
Oakley Hall's legendary "Warlock" revisits and reworks the traditional conventions of the Western to present a raw, funny, hypnotic, ultimately devastating picture of American unreality. First published in the 1950s, at the height of the McCarthy era, Warlock is not only one of the most original and entertaining of modern American novels but a lasting contribution to American fiction. "Tombstone, Arizona, during the 1880's is, in ways, our national Camelot: a never-never land where American virtues are embodied in the Earps, and the opposite evils in the Clanton gang; where the confrontation at the OK Corral takes on some of the dry purity of the Arthurian joust. Oakley Hall, in his very fine novel Warlock has restored to the myth of Tombstone its full, mortal, blooded humanity. Wyatt Earp is transmogrified into a gunfighter named Blaisdell who . . . is summoned to the embattled town of Warlock by a committee of nervous citizens expressly to be a hero, but finds that he cannot, at last, live up to his image; that there is a flaw not only in him, but also, we feel, in the entire set of assumptions that have allowed the image to exist. . . . Before the agonized epic of Warlock is over with--the rebellion of the proto-Wobblies working in the mines, the struggling for political control of the area, the gunfighting, mob violence, the personal crises of those in power--the collective awareness that is Warlock must face its own inescapable Horror: that what is called society, with its law and order, is as frail, as precarious, as flesh and can be snuffed out and assimilated back into the desert as easily as a corpse can. It is the deep sensitivity to abysses that makes "Warlock" one of ourbest American novels. For we are a nation that can, many of us, toss with all aplomb our candy wrapper into the Grand Canyon itself, snap a color shot and drive away; and we need voices like Oakley Hall's to remind us how far that piece of paper, still fluttering brightly behind us, has to fall." --Thomas Pynchon
Read Less
Add this copy of Warlock to cart. $62.00, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1958 by Viking.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Dust jacket missing. First edition. Shelf and handling wear to cover and binding, with general signs of previous use. Wear commensurate with age and use. Clean unmarked copy. Bumping visible to corners of boards and ends of spine strip. Light scuffing and smudging to boards and spine strip. Slight musty odor emanating from page block. No mold nor mildew present on boards or pages. Secure packaging for safe delivery.
Add this copy of Warlock to cart. $73.00, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1958 by Viking.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Dust jacket missing. First edition. Shelf and handling wear to cover and binding, with general signs of previous use. PENCIL PRICE AND PREVIOUS OWNER'S ADDRESS LABEL PN UPPER EDGE OF FIRST FREE PAGE. Secure packaging for safe delivery.
Add this copy of Warlock to cart. $176.00, good condition, Sold by Singing Saw Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Portland, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1958 by The Viking Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. Size: 9x5x1; FIRST EDITION. (1st printing with "First published in 1958 by The Viking Press, Inc." on copyright page. ) Very Good with former owner's stamps and inkless emboss on endpapers, contents free of markings, in a Good+ dust jacket with chipping to extremities, small sticker scar to front panel, wear at creasing to head, unclipped ($4.95). A cult classic Wetern that inspired a film the year following publication.
