{"product_id":"sullivan-vernon-i-shall-spit-on-your-graves-1948-4814","title":"I shall spit on your graves","description":"with an introduction by Boris Vian.\u003cbr\u003eParis: The Vendôme Press. 1948.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eA fusion of prime US pulp and French sado-eroticism.\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition in English. 193x140mm. pp.201 [1]. Original wrappers. Slight creasing to upper cover and spine, a small tear and some marking and soiling to lower cover and a short tear at foot of spine at joint with lower cover. Some ink underlining in a few places. Internally very good. A nice copy of a rare and scandalous book. \u003cem\u003eI shall spit on your graves\u003c\/em\u003e first appeared in French in 1946. The anti-hero is Lee Anderson, an African-American whose pale complexion allows him to pass as white. After the lynching of his brother, Anderson takes a job in a second-hand bookshop and embarks on a trail of sex with underage girls and ever more gruesome violence. The novel ends with his own lynching. It is a brutal tale, brutally told and has been described as \"A fusion of prime US pulp and French sado-eroticism\". But it was created as a hoax born out of the author's desperation to get published. Vernon Sullivan is the pseudonym of Boris Vian. Earlier novels having been rejected, Vian devised the plan of pretending to be an American writer of hard-boiled fiction. Borrowing descriptions and style from Chandler and Richard Wright, Vian concocted this disturbing novel and then pretended that he was an American forced to leave the USA to avoid censorship. In fact, the French censors sought to ban the book which, as is the way with such things, fuelled sales and publicity and encouraged Vian to write three more \"Vernon Sullivan\" novels. His initial hoax was not discovered until some years after publication. In 1959 the book was made into a film. Vian\/Sullivan disapproved of the adaptation but attended the premiere where he collapsed and died of heart attack. Film noir indeed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"SULLIVAN, Vernon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57193338470777,"sku":"4814","price":950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/4814_1.jpg?v=1777655666","url":"https:\/\/voewoodrarebooks.com\/products\/sullivan-vernon-i-shall-spit-on-your-graves-1948-4814","provider":"Voewood Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}