GOODBYE TO A RIVER: A NARRATIVE BY JOHN GRAVES

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960. 306pp. Illustrations by Russell Waterhouse. Map. Reddish cloth. First edition, first printing. SIGNED. Very good copy. The clipped jacket shows light chipping, most noticeably at the head and foot of the spine, overall good+. Greene, The Fifty Best Books on Texas p. 86: “[Goodbye to a River] is a great book….It contains the essential humor, the rawness, and earthy wisdom of an old, rural Texas society without sacrificing intelligence and historical accuracy. There have been only a handful of books that achieved this plateau. Goodbye to a River alerts the reader, from page one, to the fact that this is a masterly work, worthy of almost any literary comparison. I rank it the finest piece of Texas writing ever done….” Cox, More Basic Texas Books 40: “This book belongs in any list of basic Texas books….In fairness to Jenkins, he did struggle with not including Graves’ classic in Basic Texas Books. Freely admitting it was a great book…. For thinking adults this book is a Texas Huck Finn.”