[McMURTRY, Larry (1936-2021), his copy]. KESEY, Ken (1935-2001). Demon Box. [New York:] Viking, [1986].

Large 8vo. Original cloth-backed boards; original unclipped dust jacket. Provenance: Larry McMurtry (his bookplate, which he designed, features the horseshoe-shaped brand his father and grandfather used on the McMurtry cattle), from his personal library at his home in Archer City.

FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY KESEY TO McMURTRY. “For Larry: I remember your inscription “yet another book,” in the Caddelak [sic] Jack you sent us, and thinking ‘I wish I had something to send Larry so I could say ‘at last another book.’ Love, Ken”. McMurtry and Kesey became lifelong friends beginning when both were classmates in the graduate writing program at Stanford University in 1960. McMurtry and Kesey maintained their friendship over the years, but both were competitive with each other. “Twenty-five years later, by chance, I won a Pulitzer Prize for ‘Lonesome Dove’, after which my times with Ken were never quite the same. In time, if he had continued to write, he probably would have won a Pulitzer, too” (Jeff Baker, in The Oregonian, 9 May 2011). On 29 April 2011, McMurtry married Kesey’s widow, Norma Faye Kesey in a civil ceremony in Archer City.