Grove Press
Grove Press
Grove Press
Candy
by Terry Southern with Mason Hoffenberg“Wickedly funny to read and morally bracing as only good satire can be.” —William Styron
Books
Grove Press
Grove Press
Grove Press
About The Book
When it was originally published—first in Paris, then in America, and finally in England, where it was initially banned—Candy was greeted by controversy and overwhelming media attention. Criticized for its scandalous content, the book nonetheless sold thousands of copies, dazzled readers, and won Southern a reputation that will never die.
A lusty romp of a story centered around the impossible sweet Candy Christian, a wide-eyed, luscious, all-American girl, Candy—a satire of Voltaire’s Candide—chronicles her adventures with mystics, sexual analysts, doctors, and everyone else she meets when she breaks ties with her family and sets out to experience the world.
Praise
“Sex in America, after this event, will never be the same.” —Life
“Terry Southern writes a mean, coolly deliberate, and murderous prose.” —Norman Mailer
“Terry Southern is the American writer most capable of handling frenzy on a gigantic scale.” —Esquire
“[Terry Southern] was at once a serious, outrageously understated satirist and a quietly sophomoric Zen comedian; a patriotic anarchist, an existential Texan, a prankster tragedian, a devout nonbeliever and a sunny fatalist.” —The New York Times
“Terry Southern is the most profoundly witty writer of our generation.” —Gore Vidal
10 Facts about Candy
1.) Banned in France in 1958, a best-selling sensation in America in 1964-1965.
2.) The most pirated best-selling novel of the 20th century.
3.) Banned in stores and libraries across America, defended by scores of librarians who resisted its censorship.
4.) Its primary author Terry Southern appears on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
5.) Illegally distributed in France under the title Lollipop (to fool authorities).
6.) Written under the pen name Maxwell Kenton to protect the American authors in France from deportation.
7.) The original U.S. publisher decreed that if a pirated edition appeared, the authors would be paid nothing.
8.) Though the book made millions, the authors were paid about $200 each.
9.) Targeted by the FBI as pornography, it was redeemed as “satire” by an FBI analyst reporting to J. Edgar Hoover.
10.) One of the most successful titles originally published by Maurice Girodias—whose other successes include Lolita, Tropic of Cancer, and Naked Lunch.
