Description
Wilson, Colin (1931-2013). Eagle and Earwig: Essays on Books and Writers. London: John Baker, 1965. First Edition, First Printing. pp. 278. 8vo., measuring 5.5″ x 8.75″. Publisher’s original dark-green cloth over boards with gilt lettering over orange spine label. Lightest bumps to the head-and-tail of spine otherwise, the extremities remain remarkably well-preserved showing no additional flaws. Contents equally without blemish with bright, clean, and unmarked pages and firm, sound binding; near fine and housed in very good, lightly rubbed, price-clipped, dustjacket showing a few light spots to the front panel, and light wear along the edges (now housed in protective mylar cover). An uncommon offering of the first printing of this early collection of essays by the late English novelist, and philosopher. Overall, very good. Hardcover.
”Colin Wilson was born in Leicester in 1931, the son of a boot and shoe operative. An early interest in science developed in his teens into an interest in literature and philosophy; the result was that in his early twenties he worked simultaneously on his book Ritual in the Dark and the philosophical book The Outsider, both of which were to become bestsellers. Although he came to prominence in 1956, and was labelled an “angry young man”, he certainly has almost nothing in common with such contemporaries as John Osborne and Kingsley Amis. His work belongs to the European tradition of existentialism that runs from Goethe to Sartre and Heidegger. This is perhaps the reason that critics in England and America have found his approach somewhat difficult to assimilate, while in France, Germany, Spain and many other foreign countries he is regarded as the foremost writer of his generation. He regards his philosophical task as the creation of a bridge between Husserl’s phenomenology and Wittgenstein’s linguistic analysis. In addition to the six volumes of his “Outsider” series, which attempt to outline a new post-Sartre existentialism, he has written six novels, four plays, a volume on Rasputin and a book on music, Brandy of the Damned.” [From the dustjacket]. (#6344) $85.00
