{"product_id":"cool-hand-luke-easton-press-signed-collectors-edition","title":"Cool Hand Luke (Easton Press Signed Collector's Edition)","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePEARCE, Donn.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eCool Hand Luke.\u003c\/em\u003e Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 2009.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eOctavo. Full black leather. Spine with five raised bands, 22-carat gilt accents. Gilt design and lettering to covers. All edges gilt. Moiré silk endpapers. Satin ribbon page marker. 304 pp. \u003cstrong\u003eSigned Collector's Edition. Part of the Easton Press Signed Modern Classics series. Signed by the author on the special signature page. Includes signed Certificate of Authenticity, edition card, and bookplate adhered to front endpaper.\u003c\/strong\u003e Originally published New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1965.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eDonn Pearce (1928–2017) did not invent Luke Jackson. He lived alongside him. Pearce left his Philadelphia home at fifteen, joined the Merchant Marine as soon as he was old enough, became involved in counterfeiting in post-war Marseilles, was arrested, escaped, forged new papers, returned to the United States, and turned to safecracking. In 1949, at the age of twenty, he was arrested for burglary and sentenced to two years on a Florida Department of Corrections chain gang. \u003cem\u003eCool Hand Luke\u003c\/em\u003e is what he made of those two years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eLuke Jackson — war hero, decorated veteran of the Pacific, convicted of decapitating parking meters while drunk — arrives at a Florida road gang in the mid-1950s with nothing to recommend him except an absolute refusal to be broken. He cannot explain his defiance any more than the men around him can explain their fascination with it. He loses every fight he has no business being in and returns for more. He escapes repeatedly, is caught repeatedly, is placed in the Box, emerges unchanged. His fellow convicts do not call him a rebel or a hero; they call him a cool hand. He becomes their mythology, the proof that a man can refuse, that submission is not inevitable, that the system has limits even if it does not know them yet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe novel was published by Scribner's in 1965 and adapted into film within two years. Stuart Rosenberg's 1967 production — starring Paul Newman in the title role, with George Kennedy, Dennis Hopper, and a cast that included Pearce himself in a cameo as a convict named Sailor — won Kennedy an Academy Award and was nominated for three others, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Pearce and Frank Pierson. The film became an immediate and enduring classic of American cinema; \u003cem\u003eEmpire\u003c\/em\u003e magazine named Luke Jackson one of the hundred greatest characters in film history. The novel preceded it and has never been out of print.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003ePearce died on 19 October 2017. Signed copies carry the significance of a posthumous signature from a writer whose biography was as remarkable as his fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNear fine. \u003c\/strong\u003eSome markings and spotting to gilt edges; otherwise fine throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis book is currently not on display in store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: \u003ca href=\"mailto:rarebooks@harryhartog.com.au\" title=\"Harry Hartog Rare Book Department\"\u003erarebooks@harryhartog.com.au\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCatalogue Number: HH000529\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harry Hartog Bookseller","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49072847585523,"sku":"1110002990540","price":160.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0634\/4284\/5939\/files\/1_9dcca9ce-531d-4d8a-9607-83ffee2cc491.png?v=1779089047","url":"https:\/\/www.harryhartog.com.au\/products\/cool-hand-luke-easton-press-signed-collectors-edition","provider":"Harry Hartog Bookseller","version":"1.0","type":"link"}