Which Richard Brautigan Hardcover, First U.S. Edition is worth the most cash, and which is the hardest to find

Question

non Paperback poetry or novel and i actually do have a first of abortion a historical romance hardcover.

Answer 1

Are you asking about his published books of poetry or his novels?

If you're asking about his poetry then the first books, not hardcover but paperback 'chapbooks' put out by 'City Lights' Books and 'Black Arrow' Books are most likely the most valuable to collectors.

His first collections of poetry:

The Galilee Hitch-Hiker
Lay The Marble Table
The Octopus Frontier
All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace

were all paperback 'chapbooks.' The only one of these to ever be brinted in Hardback was 'All Watched Over...' Selling that Grove Press Edition, in excellent shape, could buy you a pretty good car to drive.

As to his novels Grove Press published the first two of these, the first of which, called 'Trout Fishing In America', would be worth a lot of money if you had a first edition (there was only one printing so they would all be first editions) in good shape.

His second Grove Press novel was 'A Confederate General From Big Sur' and it, too is worth a lot of money. Castle Books published a simaltanious (but second print) edition with Grove of the same novel. This one is worth several hundred dollars.

The rest of his novels and poetry were published by Simon And Schuster. If you had a near-perfect first edition copy of 'In Watermelon Sugar' or 'The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966' then these would probably sell for up to a thousand dollars on E-Bay.

Simon And Schuster also re-published the eariler poetry as part of a Brautigan collection. And they re-issued his first two novels under their publishing name.

Hope this helps you.