Novels > In Watermelon Sugar
First published in 1968,
In Watermelon Sugar was Richard Brautigan's third published novel and, according to Newton Smith, his most serious:
a parable for survival in the 20th c[entury]. [It] is the story of a successful commune called iDEATH whose inhabitants survive in passive unity while a group of rebels live violently and end up dying in a mass suicide. (Smith 123)
Writing History
The novel was written four years prior to its first publication in 1968, between 13 May and 19 July 1964.
Robin Blaser, a Boston poet who migrated to San Francisco, worked with Brautigan to edit the final manuscript page by page, much as
Jack Spicer did for Brautigan's earlier novel
Trout Fishing in American.
Inspiration for the Novel
Several possible inspirations for the novel are noted.
iDEATH may have been a utopian parable for the artistic/literary community of Bolinas, California where Brautigan wrote this novel. A possible inspiration for the "Forgotten Works" may have been a Sears Department store across from Brautigan's apartment at 2546 Geary Street. Brautigan moved to this typical turn-of-the-century San Francisco apartment in 1965, where he lived until 1975 (
Michael McClure 41). The view of San Francisco from across the bay in Marin County was another possible inspiration for the Forgotten Works. Another possible inspiration was Brautigan's separation from his wife,
Virginia Alder, on 24 December 1962.
The Front Cover
Like other Brautigan novels,
In Watermelon Sugar featured a photograph of Brautigan on the front cover with a young woman. Inside, one finds a familiar unnamed first person narrator who speaks in a colloquial voice not always conscious of being heard. Another common theme was the sense of solitude and incapacity.
Stephen Gaskin speaks of the "strange mythology" of this novel and says, "I knew Brautigan slightly and felt the acid weird in his book" (
Gaskin 54). There is no account or indication that Brautigan ever used psychedelic drugs.
Dedication
Dedication reads:
This novel was started May 13, 1964 in a house in Bolinas, California, and was finished July 19, 1964 in the front room at 123 Beaver Street, San Francisco, California. This novel is for Don Allen, Joanne Kyger and Michael McClure.
Donald M. Allen was an editor whose work with Grove Press and Four Seasons Foundation made the most important contribution to enlarging the contemporary American poetry canon. He was the driving force behind the publication of Brautigan's first novels.
Joanne Kyger was a leading figure in the San Francisco poetry circles during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, especially those formed around senior poet Robert Duncan. She recalled that in 1964, while working on the manuscript for this novel, Brautigan called her daily.
A Confederate General from Big Sur "is being nominated for a prize," she said.
The phenomena of the Beat Generation writers springing into instant fame after publication is on his mind, and we are sure the same thing will happen to him once he wins the prize. And that life will never be the same for him and we will never have these ordinary conversations again. But he doesn't win the prize and with some embarassment life goes on as usual. He goes on to write In Watermelon Sugar, which he dedicates to me and his other daily phone touchdowns, Don Allen and Michael McClure. His "fame" comes a few years later with the rise of the hippy reader. (Kyger 196-197)
Michael McClure was a poet and playwright who achieved fame in the 1960s when productions of his play "The Beard" were routinely raided by the police on obscenity charges. Of Brautigan, he said:
. . . his dedication to me and Don Allen and Jo Anne [sic] Kyger in In Watermelon Sugar is lovely. Especially so since it is his most perfect book. (McClure 38)
Inscribed Copies
A copy inscribed to
Donald Allen
This copy is for Don Allen
Richard Brautigan
April 17, 1969
Brautigan drew a small fish next to the inscription
Edition inscribed is First Limited edition, Four Seasons, 1968
Online Resource
READ the full text of
In Watermelon Sugar at Jason Carswell's website.
Limited Edition
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1968
Limited Edition: 50 numbered copies signed by Brautigan
Hard Cover, issued without dust jacket
Blue-gray paper-covered boards; Black cloth spine; Title gilt stamped on spine
Regular First Edition
San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1968
5.5" x 8.25"; 138 pages; ISBN: 1-131-52372-5
Hard Cover, issued without dust jacket
Front cover photograph by
Edmund Shea of Brautigan and Hilda Hoffman
Novel's opening sentence used in lieu of title and author's name
The phrase "Writing 21" on the opening page indicates placement in publisher's writing series edited by
Donald M. Allen
Released simultaneously as a paperback (138 pages), with printed wrappers. Facsimile reproduction of hard cover edition.
New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1974
ISBN 0-385-28451-9: First printing 1 September 1974
Printed wrappers
London: Jonathan Cape, 1970
5.5" x 8.75"; 138 pages; ISBN 0-224-61850-4; First printing 23 July 1970
Hard Cover, with dust jacket
Cover and dust jacket printed same
Blue background of front cover extends to spine. Titling printed in black ink.
Back cover (white) features a brief overview:
. . .a story of love and betrayal that takes place in an extraordinary environment where the sun shines a different color every day. It is Richard Brautigan's third published novel. . . .
quotes from reviews of
Trout Fishing in America by
Herbert Gold, and
Stephen Schneck, and a quote from a review of
A Confederate General from Big Sur by poet
John Ciardi, and a brief biographical statement about Brautigan.
Front dust jacket is a facsimile reprint of the Four Seasons first American edition.
Back dust jacket extends blue background from front dust jacket. No illustration, photograph, or text.
New York: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1969
5.75" x 8.5"; 112/108/138 pages; ISBN 1-1997-8543-1; First printing September 1969
Hard Cover, with dust jacket. Collects, as facsimile reprints,
Trout Fishing in America,
The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and
In Watermelon Sugar in the manner of their original editions, including front cover photographs and title pages.
More . . .
New York: Dell Publishing, 1969
138 pages; First printing November 1969
Printed wrappers
Front cover facsimile reproduction of first American edition
New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1989
5.5" x 8.25"; 112/108/138 pages; ISBN 0-395-50076-1; First printing 1 March 1989
Reprint of 1969 DelacortePress/Seymour Lawrence edition. Collects, as facsimile reprints,
Trout Fishing in America,
The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and
In Watermelon Sugar in the manner of their original editions, including front cover photographs and title pages.
More . . .
New York: Dell Publishing, 1973
167 pages; ISBN 0-440-34026-8; First printing August 1973
Printed wrappers
London: Picador-Pan Books, 1973
144 pages; ISBN 0-330-23443-9; First printing 5 January 1973
Printed wrappers
Also included in slipcase with
A Confederate General from Big Sur and
Trout Fishing in America, 1973.
London: Vintage/Random House UK Limited, 2002
142 pages; ISBN 0-099-43759-7; First printing 4 July 2002
V Melounovém Cukru. Trans. Olga Spilarová. Praha (Prague): Odeon, 1986.
196 pages; ISBN 80-7203-551-7
The first book by Brautigan published in the former Czechslovakia
Second printing 1996; Third printing 2004; both by Argo (Praha).
Spejienes Statue. Trans. Jens Juhl Jensen. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde og Bagger, 1978.
143 pages
First Danish edition
Printed wrappers
Cover art work by Anette Rasmussen
In Watermeloensuiker. Trans. Helen Knopper. Bussum: Uitgeverij Agathon, 1973.
102 pages; ISBN 9-026-95926-5
First Dutch edition
Printed wrappers
Front cover, multi-color illustration by Micha Joseph
Arbuusisuhkrus. Trans. Enn Soosar. Tallin: Hotger (20/21), 2002.
106 pages, including 8 with black and white photographs
Printed wrappers
Arbuusisuhkrus. Trans. Enn Soosar. Tallin: Kirjastus "Perioodika," 1977.
94 pages
First Estonian edition
Printed wrappers
Melonin Mehu. Trans. Jarkko Laine. Helsingissä: Otava, 1975.
128 pages; ISBN 9-511-02081-1
Bourgois editions
Romans 1. Trans. Marc Chénetier. Paris: Bourgois, 1994.
471 pages; ISBN: 2-267-01253-7
Printed wrappers
Collects three novels:
A Confederate General from Big Sur,
Trout Fishing in America, and
In Watermelon Sugar. Introduction(s) by Marc Chénetier.
Sucre de Pastèque; La Pêche à la Truite en Amérique. Trans. Michael Doury. Paris: Bourgois, 1974.
282 pages
First French edition
Printed wrappers
Collects two novels:
In Watermelon Sugar and
Trout Fishing in America.
10-18 editions
Sucre de Pastèque; La Pêche à la Truite en Amérique. Trans. Michael Doury. Paris: 10-18, 1984, 1990, 2004.
Collects two novels:
In Watermelon Sugar and
Trout Fishing in America.
2004 printing
ISBN: 2-264-03901-9
Printed wrappers
1990 printing
Printed wrappers
Front cover illustration is a detail from Edward Hopper's painting "White River at Sharon"
1984 printing
Printed wrappers
In Wassermelonen Zucker. Regensburg: Kartaus Verlag, 2003.
160 pages: ISBN 3-936-05403-7
Printed wrappers
LEARN more about Kartaus Publishing.
In Wassermelonen Zucker: Roman. Reinbek by Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag (rororo 13110), 1993.
124 pages; ISBN 3-499-13110-2
Printed wrappers
In Wassermelonen Zucker. Trans. Günter Ohnemus. Frankfort am Main: Eichborn Verlag, 1988.
171 pages; ISBN 3-821-80157-3
Printed wrappers
In Wassermelonen Zucker & Forellenfischen in Amerika. Trans. Céline and Heiner Bastian. Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein Taschenbuch Verlag (Ullstein Buch Nr. 3080), 1974.
176 pages; ISBN 3-548-03080-7
Printed wrappers
Collects two novels:
In Watermelon Sugar and
Trout Fishing in America.
In Wassermelonen Zucker. Trans. Céline and Heiner Bastian. München: Carl Hanser Verlag (Reihe
Hanser 46), 1970.
142 pages
Printed wrappers
In Wassermelonen Zucker. Trans. Céline and Heiner Bastian. München: Carl Hanser, 1970.
142 pages
Printed wrappers
Görögdinnye édes Levében. Trans. Gspann Veronika. Budapest: Magveto Konyvkiado, 1981.
First Hungarian edition
170 pages
Printed wrappers
Vatnsmelónusykur. Trans. Gyroir Elíasso. Akranesi: Hörpuútgáfan, 1991.
164 pages; ISBN 9979-50-216-9
Printed wrappers
Zucchero di Cocomero. Milano: Serra e Riva Editori, 1990.
First Italian edition
Printed wrappers
Suikatô no hibi. Trans. Kazuko Fujimoto Tokyo: Kawade Shobô Shinsha, 1975.
199 pages
Printed wrappers
Reprinted: Tokyo: Kawadeshoboshinsha, 1979.
Dar Ghand Hendevaneh [In Watermelon Sugar]. Trans. Mehdi Navid. Tehran, Iran: Cheshmeh, 2004.
184 pages; ISBN: 964-362-218-5
Printed wrappers
Front cover illustration by Farhad Fozouni
No translator's preface or other front matter
A Note from the Translator:
I plan translations of The Abortion, Dreaming of Babylon, and the almost complete collection of Brautigan's poetry.
In zahar de pepene. Trans. Liviu Bleoca. Iasi: Polirom, 2004.
First Romanian edition
264 pages; ISBN 973-681-690-7
Printed wrappers
A Note from the Translator
Trout Fishing in America and In Watermelon Sugar are the first Brautigan books translated into Romanian. Although some other Beat writers have been published in Romanian, Brautigan was left out for some reason. One explanation might be that we had very little (if any) access to such literature before 1989 because of the political situation in Romania, and then a difficult period for publishing houses followed (due to commercial reasons). Now things have settled in the publishing industry, and we are trying to catch up fast.
Actually, the man who urged Polirom to publish the these two Brautigan books is a professor of English and American literature at the University of the West in Timisoara (in western Romania), Mircea Mihaies, whom I know quite well. As far as I know, he is currently teaching Brautigan to his students.
As I had done some other translations for Polirom, they contacted me to do Trout Fishing in America and In Watermelon Sugar. For the time being, they have no plans to publish more "brautigans," to use a famous phrase. But this has to do with the fact that the two books have been issued very recently and almost immediately one after another. So, I expect them to see how their marketing goes. If they decide to go on with Brautigan, which they often do with other authors, they'll most certainly ask me to do the translations.
I should also tell you a few things about Polirom. It is one of the largest publishing houses in Romania and definitely the best in the field of translations. They also have a very good retail network, which of course helps a lot. I don't know yet how the books sell (but I will find out soon), but the book reviews published so far are good and there are signs that they will become quite popular especially among young readers.
V Arboosnom Sacharye. St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2002.
320 pages
Hard Cover, with dust jacket
Collects
In Watermelon Sugar,
The Abortion, and
Please Plant This Book.
I Sockret Av Meloner. Trans. Caj Lundgren. Stockholm: Bonniers, 1971.
108 pages
First Swedish edition
Printed wrappers
Seven Watermelon Suns: Selected Poems of Richard Brautigan. The Cowell Press: University of California at Santa Cruz, 1974.
A passage from
In Watermelon Sugar (pages 38-39), and six poems.
More . . .
In 1970, Brautigan released a record album titled
"Listening to Richard Brautigan" that featured him reading poetry, short stories, and selections from some of his novels. One reading was "The Watermelon Sun," from
In Watermelon Sugar.
More . . .
LISTEN to Brautigan read "The Watermelon Sun" from this novel.
In addition to the specific reviews detailed below, commentary about this book may also be included in
General Reviews of Brautigan's work and his place in American literature, or reviews of his
Collections.
Revies the Picdor edition. The full text of this review reads
Still more fantasy about people who've rejected hate, violence of old gang, lead gentle lives in watermelon sugar. An allegory not to everyone's taste but individual; a cult among US young.
Anonymous. "Polluted Eden."
The Times Literary Supplement [
London Times] 14 August 1970: 893.
Reviews and compares
Trout Fishing in America and
In Watermelon Sugar. Concludes
In Watermelon Sugar has the charm of the fairy story it almost is. But it has neither the emotional complexity, nor the imaginative ingenuity, nor the implicit historical and cultural awareness, nor the acute and tough critical-mindedness of
Trout Fishing in America.
the full text of this review.
Belinski, P. X. "Belinski on Brautigan."
Georgia Straight [Vancouver, BC, Canada] 5(211) 19-22 October 1971: 19.
READ the full text of this review.
Blakely, Carolyn. "Narrative Technique in Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar."
CLA Journal 35 (2) December 1991:150-158.
READ the full text of this review.
Coleman, John. "Finny Peculiar."
The Observer [London] 26 July 1970: 25.
Reviews the Jonathan Cape edidtions of both
Trout Fishing in America and
In Watermelon Sugar. Says, concerning
In Watermelon Sugar,
There may be an idea lurking and Mr. Brautigan has a genuine gift for imposing the unexpected, a loner's vision. But this myth, slackly sustained, dismisseth me."
the full text of this review.
Farrell, J. G. "Hair Brained."
Spectator [London] 225(7415) 8 August 1970: 133.
Reviews
The Book of Giuliano Sansevero by Andrea Giovene,
The Age of Death by William Leonard Marshall,
An Estate of Memory by Ilona Karmel, and
Trout Fishing in America and
In Watermelon Sugar by Brautigan.
the full text of the reference to Brautigan.
Foster, Jeffrey M. "Richard Brautigan's Utopia of Detachment."
Connecticut Review 14(1) Spring 1992: 85-91
READ the full text of this review.
Furbank, P. N. "Pacific Nursery."
The Listener [London] 84(2158) 6 August 1970: 186-187.
Reviews the Jonathan Cape editions of
Trout Fishing in America and
In Watermelon Sugar. Says of the books, "it is best to think of them as children's books" and of Brautigan, "His is a most entrancing kind of pop writing, the prettiest of wallpapers for that great nursery by the Pacific."
the full text of this review.
Gillespie, Bruce R. "Rats Reviews."
SF Commentary: The Independent Magazine about Science Fiction 40 May 1974: 52-54.
Reviews the Picador editions of
Trout Fishing in America and
In Watermelon Sugar.
Published in Melbourne, Australia. Bruce Gillespie, publisher.
SF Commentary began publishing in 1969 and continued on an irregular basis. Publication suspended 1981-1989 and 1993-1997. Focuses on science fiction commentary, criticism, history, and book reviews.
the full text of this review.
Hernlund, Patricia. "Author's Intent: In Watermelon Sugar."
Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction 16(1) 1974: 5-17.
Presents a sequential "time scheme" to help readers understand the novel's fragmentary structure. Discusses the novel's theme and the evolution of Brautigan's style. Of the emotional repression and the deprivation that is necessary for "the gentle life" portrayed in the novel to succeed, Hernlund says,
READ the full text of this review.
Reprinted
Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 5. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1976. 67-72.
Hollinger, Veronica. "Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodernism."
Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook of Cyberpunk and Postmodern Fiction. Ed. Larry McCaffery. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991. 202-218.
The full text of the reference to Brautigan reads
A random survey of postmodernist writing that has been influenced by SF [Science Fiction]—works for which Bruce Sterling ([Crystal Express] 1989) suggests the term "slipstream"—might include, for example, Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar (1968), Monique Wittig's Les Guérillères (1969), Angela Carter's Heroes and Villains (1969), J. G. Ballard's Crash (1973), Russel Hoban's Riddley Walker (1980), Ted Mooney's Easy Travel to Other Planets (1981), Anthony Burgess's The End of the World News (1982), and Kathy Acker's Empire of the Senseless (1988).
Kušnír, Jaroslav. "Diversity of Postmodern Fantasy: Richard Brautigan's
In Watermelon Sugar and Donald Barthelme's
The Dead Father." Paper submitted for PostModerne Produktionen conference, University of Erlangen, Germany, November 23–25 2001.
Kušnír teaches at The University of Presov, Slovakia.
READ the full text of this paper.
Online Resource
READ this paper at the
PostModern Productions conference archive website.
Leavitt, Harvey. "The Regained Paradise of Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar."
Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction 16(1) 1974: 18-24.
Says Brautigan is recreating Eden with the novel's narrator as "Adam II." Notes that both the Old Testament and this novel are divided into three sections.
READ the full text of this review.
Reprinted
Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 5. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1976. 67-72.
Malley, Terence. Richard Brautigan. New York: Warner, 1972.
First printing October 1972.
The first critical survey of Brautigan's work through 1971. Chapter 5, "A Delicate Balance," deals with In Watermelon Sugar. Says,
In In Watermelon Sugar, Brautigan shows us that coping with one's life requires strength and a complex act of will. The triumph of the novel, it seems to me, is the way Brautigan diagrams what the narrator calls (in reference to Pauline [a character in the novel]), "strength gained through the process of gentleness (21)." (142)
LEARN more about this book.
Says humor draws teenage readers to writers like Kurt Vonnegut, Philip Roth, John Irving, Joseph Heller, and Richard Brautigan. Argues that despite the importance of humor, little attention has been paid to what teenagers think is humorous. Reports on a study undertaken by the authors which finds choices by teenage readers "not quite as appalling as we had first thought."
Recommends, in a note at the end of the article,
A Confederate General from Big Sur,
In Watermelon Sugar, and
The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster as "recommended humorous books."
The full text of the reference to Brautigan reads
Richard Brautigan also surprises readers with innocent sounding grossness. For example, he explains the title of his novel [sic] The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster: "When you take your pill it's like a mine disaster. I think of all the people lost inside you."
Rohrberger, Mary. "In Watermelon Sugar."
Masterplots II. American Fiction Series. 4 vols. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1986. Vol. 2, 787-791.
READ the full text of this review.
READ the full text of this review.
Schäbler, Bernd. "Versuche einer Projektiven Rezeption: 5. Richard Brautigan: In Watermelon Sugar." Amerikanische Metfiction im Kontext der Europäischen Moderne [American Metafiction in the Context of the European Modern]. Giessen: Hoffmann Verlag, 1983. 674-713.
Review from a German perspective.
Schroeder, Michael L. "Rhetorical Depth or Psychological Aberration: The Strange Case of Richard Brautigan."
Mount Olive Review 3 Spring 1989: 45-49.
Says that some critics think
In Watermelon Sugar and the narrator expresses an affirmative approach to life, while some think it expresses a negative approach. The problem is "how does one explain the presence of a narrator who is disarmingly lyrical and placid while at the same time harboring such ugly traits? Perhaps an answer is provided by a consideration of Brautigan himself, as he is described by those who knew him best." Schroeder then quotes from articles by
Peter Manso and Michael McClure and
Lawrence Wright and concludes that the narrator of
In Watermelon Sugar
shares with Brautigan not only the divided personality and the attempt to project a wholly favorable view of himself, but also several other character flaws: egotism, rudeness, unreliability, and a tendency to demand too much of women, using them largely for his own ego gratification. The narrator in In Watermelon Sugar does not reveal the degree of physical violence that Brautigan did, but his calm acceptance of violent acts suggests him to be little better.
With a nod to rhetorical depth ("Brautigan might be demonstrating more literary sophistication than many readers would give him credit for.") Schroeder asks,
Did Brautigan consciously give his character elements of his own darker side, or did they appear without his being aware of the self-revelation? Whatever the case, the correspondences between the author's faults and his narrator's are too direct to be purely coincidental.
the full text of this review.
Tanner, Tony. "The Dream and the Pen."
The Times [London] 25 July 1970: 5G.
READ the full text of this review.
Thomson, George H. "Objective Reporting as a Technique in the Experimental Novel: A Note on Brautigan and Robbe-Grillet."
Notes On Contemporary Literature 8(4) 1978: 2.
Says the convention of objective reporting, a narrative style associated with "a certain kind of realism in which ostensibly reality speaks for itself" while the implied author's attention is elsewhere, has "undergone a strange transformation in the experimental novel of recent years. Compares Robbe-Grillet's Le Voyeur and Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar. Concludes "the result is deliberately to subvert the kind of realism originally aspired to by the fictional practitioners of reportorial objectivity." (2)
READ the full text of this review.
Villar, Raso M. "The Myth as Consumption: Richard Brautigan."
Camp de l'Arpa: Magazine of Literature 19 1975: 23, 25.
READ this review.
Reviews
Stones by Tom Clark,
Instructions for Undressing the Human Race by Fernando Alegria, and
The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster and
In Watermelon Sugar by Brautigan. Says, of
In Watermelon Sugar:
[T]he pace . . . is incredibly slow, almost listless: most of the activity seems the cause of something happening outside the persons involved. . . . Like Brautigan's other novels, this one is written in very short sections, so that a single consecutive activity . . . often takes several sections; and this is where the possibilities of transition or pacing take control of the book, for it's just as much how you read—how fast or slow—as what has actually been written that is important, how you let the weight of that simplicity stay in your head.
the full text of the reference to Brautigan.
Reprinted
Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 3. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1975. 86-90.
Welch, Lew. "Brautigan's Moth Balanced on an Apple."
San Francisco Chronicle. 15 December 1968: This World 53, 59.
Those who'd read Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America will be pleased to know that his new book, In Watermelon Sugar, is even better than that, and is even more beautiful. (53)
READ the full text of this review.
Reprinted
Welch, Lew.
How I Work As A Poet & Other Essays. Bolinas, CA: Grey Fox Press, 1983. 22-24.
Williams, Dan. "A World Within: Solipsism and Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar." ***?***.
READ this review.
