27 Wagons Full of Cotton

New York: New Directions, 1953. First Edition thus. Hardcover. Fair/Very Good+. 8vo; publisher's yellow cloth lettered in blue on the spine. In a supplied Alvin Lustig designed DJ, priced at $3.50. A reissue of the earlier New Directions publication, this 1953 edition adds two previously unpublished plays. A worn and stained copy, the pages browned, the top edge of the cloth showing insect damage the bottom portion of the front and rear boards showing the effects of damp-staining. This copy is, however, inscribed and signed by Tennessee Williams with thanks to Bryand Sheedy. Sheedy bought and ran a guest house in the Turks and Caicos and over the years befriended literary figures, Williams among them. Apparently a wide-bodied, larger than life figure, in the look and manner of a modern day Falstaff, he was known to have a large library of inscribed literary first editions (see New York Times travel piece on Sheedy from 1998). Unfortunately, the Turks and Caicos is not the best place to store a collection of books, and Sheedy's copies tended to be (judging by the ones we have), well, on the "sheedy" side. This book is no exception, although the supplied Lustig jacket allows it to look ok on the shelf. Sold as is for the interesting association.