1971. First UK edition. 246 printed pages. 145 x 225 mm. Original red cloth. Complete with very good condition original dustjacket. Corners and head of spine with minuscule abrasions. Contemporary ink signature and with ink rubber ownership stamp -'THIS BOOK HAS BEEN STOLEN FROM THE COLLECTION OF JEREMY CARTLAND' on the front free endpaper. Provenance: Jeremy Cartland, poet. In March 1973 Jeremy's 60 year old father, John Cartland, a wartime secret agent, was brutally murdered in the south of France while on a business trip. The father and son had been camping overnight on a piece of waste ground in their 1965 Sprite Musketeer caravan, which was discovered burnt out at the murder scene. Jeremy was also badly injured at the time but became the main suspect in a celebrated and infamous, but ultimately unsolved, murder case. Jeremy Cartland, who lived in Brighton, was awarded £50,000 libel damages from the BBC in 1983 over a TV programme which he successfully argued, implied that he may have murdered his father. Like much of Southern's work, Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes presents a detailed portrait of American culture during the 1950s. Many stories, in particular "You're Too Hip, Baby", "The Blood of a Wig", and "The Night the Bird Blew for Doctor Warner", explore the mentality of the hipster and the pretentiousness of countercultures - black comedy, exploring themes of alienation, love and truth.