New York: Signet Books, 1964. First edition thus. Signed by the author for his Signet publisher on the title page. A very nearly Fine copy of the book with a slight crease to the lower cover. Uncommon signed.

The 1963 novel by Charles Webb that follows emotionally lost college graduate Benjamin Braddock and his eventual affair with Mrs. Robinson. The book was written shortly after the writer himself had graduated Williams College. It was adapted into the classic 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols, starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katherine Ross. Nichols would win an Academy Award for Best Director, while Hoffman, Bancroft and Ross would all earn performance nominations. Interestingly enough, Webb was uncomfortable with the publicity and success of the movie and did not get any royalties from it. "The Graduate" was selected for preservation in the US Natural Film Registry in 1996. “arresting in its brilliant use of dialogue and likely to arouse talk and controversy.” (Contemporary New York Times review)

Provenance: From the library of Kurt Enoch, who founded the New American Library and subsequently its Signet and Penguin imprints, and who in the late 1940s invented the mass market paperback, bringing the work of many great authors to a vast and entirely new readership. Near Fine (Item #2049)