The Savage God; A Study of Suicide [Proof Copy]

New York: Random House, 1972. Uncorrected Proof. Tall octavo. 28cm. Publisher's sea green card wraps printed in black to front cover. 218pp [paginated by hand]. Clean and sharp with some sunning to the upper sections of the covers, strong and tight; internally clean and fresh with contemporary review clippings laid in at the front, and Crane Duplicatiing Services ink stamp to recto of the rear wrap. A very good copy.

An advance uncorrected proof for, presumably, the paperback printing (the ad hoc pagination does not correspond with the hardback edition) of Alvarez's monumental and controversial work on the causes and nature of the suicidal impulse. Alvarez offers a far more complex and nuanced view of the concept of suicide than was contemporaneously 'acceptable' attempting to sideline the stigmatic descriptors involving 'cowardice' or mental illness and instead presenting the implication that in some cases, self annihilation becomes the only rational and sensitive course of human action.