DUNN, Nell ~ Poor Cow. Signed by the author in the year of publication.

First UK printing. MacGibbon & Kee Ltd., London: 1967

8vo., textured burgundy boards lettered with devices in gilt to spine; pictorial dustwrapper (18s net) designed by John Farman; THE BOOK a very good copy, mildly bumping at spine ends with some small brown stains to outer edges and a couple of light spots to prelims; front paste down a little torn, possibly from the removal of a label or bookplate; the very good DUSTWRAPPER evenly toned, with some dark lines of staining along edges and to front flap; lightly nicked to edges. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition, first UK printing, signed by the author in the year of publication to the title page. Dunn’s debut novel after her collection of short stories Up the Junction (1963), is a kitchen-sink drama, and a ‘pink-lipsticked, mini-skirted tale of life, love and young motherhood in the sixties’, which follows the story of Joy who, when her husband is sent to prison, struggles to keep her head above water. Moving in with her Aunt, the protagonist becomes a barmaid, meets a friend (Beryl), and together they work as photographer’s models, turning to sex work in order to survive. Upon publication, the book caused a scandal for its frank and unsentimental portrayals of female desire and working class women of the 1960s. Dunn herself was born in Chelsea, and was the daughter of the businessman and land-owner Sir Phillip Dunn. Despite her family’s relative wealth, she left school at 14, and later claimed that her own spelling was very much in line with her protagonist’s - who writes long, badly-spelt letters to her husband in prison. (“You should have given me a proper education! I can’t even spell!” Dunn reportedly accused her father.) In 1967, Dunn adapted the novel for film, writing the screenplay with close friend and director Ken Loach. The resulting adaptation starred Carol White and Terence Stamp in the lead roles. A precise evocation of working-class life in London of the early 1960s, which explores the meaning of female empowerment in the face of hardship.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Very Good