Hurry on Down

Secker & Warburg. London: Secker & Warburg, 1953 8vo., red boards, spine lettered in gilt; the vibrant dustwrapper (12s. 6d. net) in full colour, featuring a series of characters walking down a flight of stairs; pp. [vi], 240, [vi]; slightly bumped at spine ends and corners; endpapers with some marks, including some light offsetting and tape residue; a very nice copy otherwise, in the very good dustwrapper which retains much of its brightness, some minimal shelf wear and creasing; some small nicks and creases to tips of spine. First edition. Inscribed by the author to the front free endpaper "Ernest Rasdall best wishes from John Wain. mcmlvii". Hurry on Down was Wain's first, and arguably best, novel, and is a comic picaresque story about Charles Lumley, a young man who chooses to reject the confines of conventional society. Set in the rapidly changing world of post-war Britain, the plot follows the university graduate as he struggles to find a place in the world, and through a series of jobs which involve window cleaning, driving, drug dealing, hospital assisting, and more. John Wain is perhaps best remembered today for his contributions to the 'Angry Young Men' movement of the 1950s, and his association with such figures as John Osborne, Alan Sillitoe and Keith Waterhouse. In fact, excerpts of Hurry on Down were included in the popular paperback sampler, Protest: The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men, which appeared in 1958. It was, however, an association that Wain consistently rejected throughout his life. Written when the author was just 27, the novel remains a popular and humorous work which "moves throughout at a spanking pace" (dust wrapper). . Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 1st Printing. 1953.