Warmly inscribed first edition of the boxing champion's autobiography, detailing his rough young adulthood and ties to organized crime – adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Robert DeNiro and directed by Martin Scorsese.
Very good in a very good jacket.
Price: $950.00
"I was sixteen and a hard core, what they now call a juvenile delinquent. What they called them then was a goddamned good-for-nothing bum kid."
Boasting what BOXING NEWS calls "the greatest chin in middleweight history," Jake La Motta took hits as well as he could dish them out (Slater). Known as both "the Bronx Bull" and "the Raging Bull," La Motta lived a tumultuous life, which he documented in this memoir. The tumult made for an often violent, dangerous man, and also a compelling movie plot. Martin Scorsese took up La Motta's often grim story, and the film version of RAGING BULL is considered one of Scorsese's best. While we've been unable to determine conclusively who the inscribee of this copy is/was, the film had a long and tortuous road to the screen and was clearly inscribed to someone involved with the development or production at some point. Nevertheless, an appropriately and intriguingly inscribed copy of the book adapted into one of the greatest films of the 20th century,
Read more: James Slater, "The Five Greatest Chins in Boxing History," Boxing News.
First printing. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice-Hall, Inc, (1970). 9'' x 6''. Original red cloth, gilt-lettered spine. In original unclipped ($6.95) red pictorial dust jacket with drawing by Murray Olderman. Gold endpapers. Illustrated with full-page photographic images. [6], 218 pages. Boldly inscribed by La Motta on front fly leaf: "To Tony: One 'helluv' an actor — But if he dont do a 'helluv' a job on my story—I'm gonna give him one 'helluv' a rap in the mouth -- Love, Jake La Motta." Mild bowing to boards, with some soiling to top edge. Jacket has some edgewear and creasing. Overall, sound and clean.
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