first edition Hardcover
1932 · New York
by Wilson, Marjorie Damsey
New York: Farrar & Rinehart. Very Good+. 1932. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [spine a little turned, minor visible wear at a couple of corners]. This uncommon novel "is simply the story of Nancy Prager. Raised by a devoted elder sister to care for nothing but the preservation of her lovely face and body, Nancy ruthlessly sacrificed her family, her lovers, and her husband to satisfy her mad love for her own beauty. She lived for only one thought -- to preserve her looks, as she moved like another Helen of Troy through New York's kaledoscopic society. A really extraordinary first novel, and psychologically and pathologically one of the most interesting books in years." [Quoted from the dust jacket, NOT present on this copy of the book.] According to her jacket-blurb bio, the author was a New York-based journalist who began writing fiction in 1925, and "has written and sold over a million and a half words of pulp fiction, serials, novelettes, and short stories. [She] adores writing, has no theories about it, and writes anywhere from five to fourteen hours a day." Despite the book being dubbed "a promising first novel" by at least one critic, it took Mrs. Wilson twenty years to turn out the only other one she ever published. . (Inventory #: 23934)