LA GRANDE MÊLÉE (BATTLE ROYAL)

First French edition. Signed by the author with an original drawing. Paperback original. Publisher's original photo-illustrated gloss card covers. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm with mild rubbing to the extremities and a touch of fading to the spine. The contents are clean throughout and without previous owners' marks.

Inscribed by the author, filmmaker and screenwriter around an original comical self-portrait drawing in blue, red and green ink "To Frank Pike - / Perhaps you'll / enjoy a friendly / Melee, now and / then - / Samuel Fuller / Dec. 6. 84". The recipient Frank Pike, was an editor at Faber and Faber for 41 years and from the 1960s onwards responsible for the Faber drama list, recruiting Tom Stoppard, Simon Gray, Brian Friel, Sam Shepard, and Alan Bennett, among others, as well as working closely with authors already publishing with the firm, notably Samuel Beckett.