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Nightwood

  • SIGNED
  • London: Faber and Faber Ltd, 1936
By Barnes, Djuna
London: Faber and Faber Ltd, 1936. First edition. Near Fine/Very Good. First British edition, first printing. Association copy signed by Djuna Barnes on the front free endpaper and warmly inscribed to Chester Page with date 1970. 239 pp. Bound in publisher's purple cloth with gilt lettering to spine, blue topstain. Near Fine with slight lean to spine, light rubbing and toning to extremities, and fading to topstain. Contents lightly toned. In a Very Good unclipped dust jacket with light toning and moderate edgewear and soiling. The groundbreaking lesbian-themed novel, uncommon in the original dust jacket and quite scarce as a signed first. Messerli 6.

Djuna Barnes became a notorious recluse during the last decades of her life, suspicious of all but her closest friends. One of those friends, poet Marianne Moore, became concerned about Barnes' health in the spring of 1970 and asked a young pianist and bibliophile named Chester Page to call her. Somewhat surprisingly, Barnes invited him to tea, and the ensuing friendship that developed lasted until her death in 1982. This book marks the earliest stages of a relationship that defined the last decade of the great writer's life, as covered in Page's Memoirs of a Charmed Life in New York. He notes the difficulty of getting signed books from Barnes: "I knew Djuna regarded giving her signature as though she were giving her life blood.

Details

Title

Nightwood

Author

Barnes, Djuna

Condition

Very Good

Publisher

Faber and Faber Ltd: London

Date

1936

Edition

First edition

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