Description
A first edition, first printing of Johnny Guitar by Roy Chanslor, published by Robert Hale, London in 1954. A near fine book without inscriptions, some pushing and toning to the spine tips, a closed split to the cloth on the hinge at the heel of the spine, toning to the text block, spotting to the prelims and ghosting to the front and rear end papers.
Published in 1953, Roy Chanslor’s Johnny Guitar is a taut, unconventional Western centred on Vienna, a fiercely independent saloon owner threatened by hostile townspeople after a fatal robbery. Her former lover, the reformed gunfighter Johnny Guitar, returns and becomes her defender as jealousy, mob violence and old passions converge. The novel reverses many traditional Western roles, placing formidable women at its centre, and inspired Nicholas Ray’s celebrated 1954 film starring Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden.
