The Devil to Pay in the Backlands

Looking at this object I can tell Joao Guimaraes Rosa (excuse the lack of accents) was obviously well-loved by Alfred Knopf. Knopf himself is credited with the author photo, and check out the gorgeous decorations on the spine and front of the book. The whole package is just stunning -- publishing done right!

Robert Nedelkoff mentions in the comments on the Neglected Books site post that New Directions has plans to reprint The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. Please God do it.

If you are searching for this book, I'd suggest waiting for the reprint. This edition goes for hundreds of dollars at the moment. As far as I know, it was never available in paperback.

This post (along with the post below about A Life Full of Holes etc.) completes my scans of titles on "the list." My standard spiel about the list: Brad, the editor of the great Neglected Books site [neglectedbooks.com], posted an annotated list of 20 out-of-print books I made in June of 2000 (a list which helped me get a job in publishing). He added links to all the book titles. I'm going to post images of the books discussed (if I still have them). The permanent link for the list on Neglected Books. View all my posts about the list here.



The spine under the dustjacket:
Decoration from front panel:



Jaguar and Other Stories