The Clockwork Testament or Enderby's End by Anthony Burgess [FIRST EDITION] 1974

The Clockwork Testament or Enderby's End by Anthony Burgess 

FIRST EDITION  / FIRST PRINTING [1974] ALFRED A. KNOPF

Hardcover sans dust jacket.   Great reading copy w/ some wear / light discoloration to cloath boards.   Inside, pages are white and read like new! 

Enderby is a dyspeptic British poet, 56 years old, and The Clockwork Testament is an account of his last day alive. The day in question is a cold one in February. He spends it in New York City, where for the past several months he's been working as a visiting professor of English literature.

Enderby's present situation arose from a chance encounter with an American film producer in Tangiers, where he owns a bar. Publican Enderby served the man a Scotch and pitched him an idea for a new film.  The producer, intrigued, asked for a script, which Enderby duly composed. The eventual film bears little resemblance to this script or to Hopkins's poem; however, his name is prominently credited, and the film, and Enderby, are now famous.

Quirky Enderby, under attack in New York for his valiant defense of art, morality, and health against American culture's malevolent vagaries, succumbs to a bad heart and a bad movie.