HOUSEBOAT ON THE SEINE

[NY]: Newmarket Press, 1996. First Edition, first printing. Signed presentation from Wharton on the title page: “To Harriett & Tim, Happy Days. William Wharton.” The recipients of this presentation used to let Wharton stay in their Ocean Grove, NJ home and once traded places, with Wharton allowing her to stay on this famous houseboat on the Seine. Painter and novelist Wharton gives us literally the nuts and bolts of building a houseboat, along with generous dollops of humor and local color. As a struggling artist in Paris with his schoolteacher wife and four children, Wharton decided to build his own boat after visiting that of an acquaintance in the mid-1970s. He recounts the family's adventures in making their dream come true. They gave up their Paris flat and moved onto the boat, which docked 12 miles downriver from Paris at Le Port Marly. There they spent the next 25 years adding the finishing touches. Uncommon to find a signed copy!. Tall 8vo., cloth & boards in dust jacket; 224 pages. Very Good (covers nice; contents clean & tight with very faint crease first few pages); nice d/j. A nice copy with an interesting history.