The Author's Debut Work

Dunn, Nell ~ Up the Junction : Signed And Dated By The Author In The Year Of Publication

First UK Printing : MacGibbon & Kee, London : 1963

The First UK Printing published by MacGibbon & Kee, London in 1963. 8vo., dark blue boards, gilt to spine; photographic pink and black wrapper by Tina Tranter (12s 6d net); illustrated with line drawings throughout by Susan Benson; The BOOK is in near Fine condition, lightly pushed at the spine ends and faintly offset to end-papers ; previous ownership name neatly inked to the upper front paste-down; the Very Good+ WRAPPER creased and rubbed along folds, with some staining and dark splash marks to the lower panel; spine tips with some heavier creases, and a couple of nicks; evidence of toning to verso. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. The first edition of the author’s debut work, signed ‘Nell Dunn’ to the title page, and dated in the year of publication. Set in 1960s Battersea, Up the Junction is a collection of short stories which explores the lives of three women - Rube, Lily and Sylvie - who work in a sweet factory by day, and paint the town red by night. Originally published as a series of articles in the New Statesman, the present collection features such stories as Bang on the Common, Out with the Boys and Death of an Old Scrubber, and was noted at the time for its use of colloquial slang, as well as its frank and often graphic depictions of sex, thievery and back street abortion, relatively controversial and unexplored topics for the time. The book won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize in the year of publication, a prize given to an author aged 35 years or younger, with Dunn just 27 when it was released. Her candid depictions of ‘clip-joint hustles, candid sexual encounters, casual birth and casual death’ saw her achieve a certain degree of fame, and the work was followed in 1967 by her first full-length novel, 'Poor Cow'. In 1968, the book was adapted into a popular film with a soundtrack by Manfred Mann. The band ‘Squeeze’ later used the title for their 1979 hit, with its opening line also portraying life in Battersea ("I never thought it would happen with me and the girl from Clapham"). “She loved the energy she found up The Junction, the vitality, the lack of pretension” one reviewer writes, with the New Statesmen also claiming that she“rework[ed] a national literary tradition, the love affair between the classes.” Scarce signed.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Very Good+