Flesh is Heir: An Historical Romance

New York: Brewer, Warren & Putnam. Very Good in Fair dj. 1932. First Edition. Hardcover. [a good sound copy, ableit a bit shelfworn; the jacket is quite fragile, with shallow but extensive chipping along edges, the rear hinge split nearly its entire length, a small tear/puncture wound at the bottom of the front panel, etc.; on the positive side, most of the jacket is present and it could benefit from a professional restoration]. The first and only novel by this noted American polymath -- "an expert on many subjects," as The New York Times once called him -- who was an influential figure on the cultural scene (particularly in New York) from (truncated) the 1930s into the 1980s. Particularly noted as a patron of the arts, especially the ballet (he was a co-founder of the School of American Ballet in 1933 and (with George Balanchine) the New York City Ballet (originally called the Ballet Society) in 1946), he was also a prolific writer and critic, turning out hundreds of articles, reviews and books over the course of his career. This novel, a coming-of-age tale that takes place from 1922 through 1930 (corresponding to, and certainly informed by, the author's own experiences growing up in Boston and attending the prestigious private Berkshire School and then Harvard, from which he graduated in 1930). In his Afterword to the reprint of the novel (in the invaluable "Lost American Fiction" series), Kirstein is quite direct about the matter: "To grant that my novel was little more than autobiography would be an understatement," he wrote. "Nothing in it, for better or worse, was invention; it was all far too literally true, however veneered or transposed a detail." (He also admits that the reason he never attempted another novel was because he "was quite unable to realize characters with whom I had no firsthand contact.") He discusses his literary influences at some length, and explains how he had long viewed even contemporary fiction as "historical," citing as particular examples and inspirations F. Scott Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise," which he read at age fourteen, and the work of T.S. Eliot. He also recounts the reaction of his father upon reading it: "he was horrified, seriously considering steps toward its suppression." (In the end, he needn't have worried much: "Actually, the book was ignored." Kirstein remembered only "a single notice from a Marxist critic dismissing it as conspicuous waste.") It remained ignored and virtually forgotten for decades -- even by Kirstein, who said he "could not bear to open it from the time it appeared" until he was approached about the aforementioned reprint edition, which was published by Southern Illinois University Press in 1975 (and has itself become a bit hard to find). A note regarding provenance of this copy: a previous bookseller's pencil notation on the front endpaper identifies this as "Donald Gallup's copy"; Gallup was a noted book and manuscript collector, bibliographer and editor, and at one time was curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature. The dust jacket isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but given the book's original tepid reception and its long period in the eclipse of unappreciation, it might well be the *only* example you'll ever see; govern yourself accordingly. . (Inventory #: 29686)