Tarantula – Bob Dylan (First Edition, MacGibbon & Kee, 1971)

This MacGibbon & Kee first edition (1971) of Bob Dylan's Tarantula is of interest to collectors of Bob Dylan, rock and roll literature, and 1960s counterculture first editions.

About: A very good first edition in a very good dust jacket. The jacket retains its bold, striking design with Dylan's iconic portrait photograph; some tanning to the jacket edges and spine ends consistent with age, boards clean and square. The interior is bright and unmarked throughout  - a solid, presentable copy of Dylan's first and only book, priced at £1.10 net on the flap.

Details:

• Title: Tarantula
• Author: Bob Dylan
• Publisher: MacGibbon & Kee, London
• Publication Date: 1971
• Edition: 1st Edition (UK first edition)
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good (some tanning to edges and spine ends)

Synopsis: UK first edition of Bob Dylan's only prose work - a surrealist, stream-of-consciousness novel written in 1965–66 at the height of his creative powers, finally published in 1971. An essential title for any serious Dylan collection.

Review: Written during the most electrifying period of Dylan's career - the years of Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, and Like a Rolling Stone - Tarantula is a wild, hallucinatory prose poem that defies easy categorisation. Part Beat novel, part surrealist collage, part extended lyric, it offers an unfiltered window into Dylan's creative imagination at its most feverish. Long circulated in bootleg typescript before its authorised publication, the book remains one of the most sought-after items in Dylan bibliography.