From the library of the publisher Tom Maschler

Morris, Desmond ~ Animal Days : Inscribed by the Author to his Publisher, Tom Maschler

FIRST UK PRINTING : Jonathan Cape, London : 1979

The First UK Printing published by Jonathan Cape, London in 1979. 8vo., brown boards lettered in gilt to backstrip with publisher's device to foot; together in the unclipped photographic wrapper (£5.95 net), designed by Raymond Hawkey, featuring a photograph of the chimpanzee Congo to the upper panel, and a black and white photograph of the author to the lower; dark cream endpapers; proliferated throughout with numerous black and white photographs on glossy paper; The BOOK is in near Fine condition, with just ever-so-slight pushing to the spine tips; The WRAPPER also near Fine, lightly and evenly sunned to the backstrip. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing. This copy inscribed by the author to his publisher at Jonathan Cape, Tom Maschler : "To Tom, who turned my animal pleasures into human triumphs, with love, Desmond". From Maschler's private library, with his Ex Libris bookplate (designed by Quentin Blake), affixed to the front paste-down. Maschler was a publishing assistant at Andre Deutsch and assistant Fiction Editor at Penguin before he went on to head Jonathan Cape for almost three decades, until he stepped down in 1991. There, he helped to launch the career of such writers as Gabriel García Márquez, Ian McEwan and Bruce Chatwin, and many others. In 1969, he was one of the key figures involved in the creation of the Booker Prize, the first awarded novelist being P. H. Newby, with 'Something to Answer For'. It was Maschler who persuaded Morris to become a writer. "I was living near Regent's Park, and Desmond was curator of mammals at London Zoo", he later explained. "-not the most promising author. But at a party I heard him talking with great energy about ethnology, the study of human behaviour from a biological perspective. He suddenly used the phrase the naked ape. It struck me as a marvelous title. I said 'if you turn this into a book, it'll be so successful you'll never again be taken seriously by scientists, but you'll be very rich." Maschler was ultimately correct - after three years the book was published to global acclaim and made Morris wealthy enough to be able to live in Malta with a Rolls-Royce, a grand villa and a full-size billiard table. A wonderful association copy.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine