Loitering With Intent By Peter O'Toole
Loitering With Intent (First Edition Hardcover Copy)
The Extraordinary, Picaresque Childhood Memoir of Cinema's Legendary Lawrence of Arabia
The Extraordinary, Picaresque Childhood Memoir of Cinema's Legendary Lawrence of Arabia
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Loitering With Intent
- Author: Peter O'Toole
- Publisher: Macmillan London Ltd, London
- Publication Date: 1992
- ISBN-10: 0333537971
- ISBN-13: 9780333537978
- Edition Details: First UK Edition, First Printing. Standard hardcover release with original unclipped dust jacket.
- Binding: Original publisher's premium textured cloth boards with crisp silver or gold gilt-stamped typography running down the spine, complete with structurally sound endpapers.
- Physical Format: Octavo (8vo), 198 pages. Wonderfully enhanced with a central section featuring rare black-and-white personal and professional archival photographs tracking his formative years.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
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The Book: Near Fine (NF) / Mint
- Exterior / Cloth Boards: The cloth casing remains in pristine, near-flawless condition. The structural lines sit perfectly square, the boards are completely flat, and the corners are razor-sharp. The original spine is crisp, rigid, and completely undamaged, showing zero shelf wear or bumping along the board extremities.
- Interior: The text block is robustly bound, tight, and immaculate. The internal pages are crisp, bright white, and entirely untouched. Free of standard user highlighting, ink underlining, dealer pencil marks, or dog-ears.
- Provenance: An exemplary archival-grade volume showing no signs of institutional library stamps, previous owner nameplates, or remainder marks.
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The Dust Jacket: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Condition Details: The original, strikingly illustrated dust jacket retains excellent color contrast and high-gloss quality. It displays only very limited, microscopic signs of handling and light storage friction along the outer edges. Completely free of fading, structural tears, or open chips, it is beautifully preserved and protected in a clear, archival Cellophane cover.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Published in 1992, Loitering With Intent is the brilliant, picaresque autobiography of Peter O'Toole, one of the most enigmatic and celebrated actors of the 20th century. Written entirely by his own hand in a dazzlingly poetic and theatrical style, the narrative focuses on his early life and chaotic path to adulthood. O'Toole paints an unforgettable picture of his childhood, framed by his colorful father, "Captain" Patrick O'Toole—an itinerant racetrack bookmaker—and his mother, Constance Jane Eliot Ferguson, a woman with "wavy black hair, quick eyes and a determination to marry for money."
The memoir tracks his early school days under the long shadow of Adolf Hitler, his formative years in the Royal Navy, and a short-lived, chaotic career as a cub reporter. The story culminates in his almost accidental audition at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), an event that launched his trajectory toward international stardom as the definitive Lawrence of Arabia. Far from a conventional Hollywood catalog of films, this work stands as a literary masterpiece of working-class post-war childhood.
Author Profile: Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole (1932–2013) was a legendary Irish-British actor of stage and screen who achieved global stardom with his mesmerizing, career-defining performance in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). He earned eight Academy Award nominations for Best Actor—holding the record for the most nominations without a competitive win—before being honored with an Academy Honorary Award in 2003 for his lifelong contributions to cinema. A giant of classical theatre and a legendary figure of the 1960s British New Wave, O'Toole was celebrated as much for his towering dramatic genius as he was for his brilliant wit and literary talent.
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