How trite. How hackneyed. An offer you can’t refuse unless you want a horse’s head in your bed, your knee caps shot off, a cement overcoat or boots, or a final ride in the trunk of a Cadillac. Mario Puzo’s first two novels, Dark Arena, 1955, and The Fortunate Pilgrim, 1965, had good reviews, but were not financial successes.
The Runaway Summer of Davie Shaw, 1966, and Six Graves to Munich, 1967, remain almost completely unknown. Then came The Godfather, 1969, but it was all downhill from there, as The Godfather Papers and Other Confessions, 1972, Inside Las Vegas, 1977, Fools Die, 1978, The Sicilian, 1984, The Fourth K, 1991, The Last Don, 1996, and Omerta, 2000, didn’t achieve either the success or worth of The Godfather. Puzo's posthumous The Family, 2001, died, also.
Puzo was a degenerate gambler. As he says in Inside Las Vegas : “ Gambling has been a very important part of my life, but not a completely destructive part…I also have to admit that gambling has been terribly destructive to certain periods of my life. My second novel took ten years to write, partly because I spent too much time gambling and partly because I spent too much time supporting my family.”
His earlier works command a fairly hefty price for collectible first editions, but prices drop off quite sharply in the post-Godfather books. Prices below are for the only kind of books we buy for Greyhound’s Books: a Fine condition book in a Fine condition dust jacket:
- Dark Arena Random House, 1955. $ 300.00 - $ 500.00
-The Fortunate Pilgrim Atheneum, 1965. $ 150.00
- The Runaway Summer of Davie Shaw Platt & Munk 1966. $ 35.00 to $ 50.00
- Six Graves to Munich Banner Book 1967. $ 10.00
This is a paperback original written under the pseudonym of Mario Cleri.
- The Godfather G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York 1969. $ 2000.00
- The Godfather Papers and Other Confessions G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972. $20.00
And, a very well done book of local interest:
- Inside Las Vegas Grossett, 1977. $ 25.00
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