first edition Hardcover
1941 · Boston
by PROUTY, Olive Higgins
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1941. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. First edition. Contemporary gift inscription, corners a bit bumped, a very good plus copy in a very good, edgeworn dustwrapper with a chip in the upper right-hand corner of the front panel. Novel of a repressed woman who sets out on a cruise to discover freedom and life. Basis for the film featuring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and two cigarettes, with Claude Rains helping them along. Reportedly Davis, who took then unheard of chances with the role by deliberately gaining weight and foregoing makeup, extensively reworked the original screenplay herself, incorporating more of the novel’s (truncated)