The Magnificent Idiot by Peter De Polnay

Doubleday, Doran & Co.,  First U.S. Edition, 1942

Condition: Near Very Good in Fair dust jacket

 

This scarce satiric novel (originally published in England as Boo), the third novel of a British-educated writer who was apparently still writing novels in the '70s  seems to have been a forerunner of Jerzy Kosinski's Being There (with its story of an intellectually-deficient man making an impact on the lives of a group of sophisticates).  This copy has modest cover corner and spine end wear and the back hinge is slit but with little effect on the intact binding; it appears to be free of markings, though there are a few small page corner creases and the pages are toned.  The jacket has large paper loss at the spine bottom and some at the spine top and the top fold; there are also short edge tears and some other general wear; but dj is still serviceable.  Still, the title is hard to come by in any condition (out of print).