first edition Hardcover
(c.1955) · New York
by Whitmore, Stanford
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. (c.1955). First Edition. Hardcover. NOISBN . [minor soiling/spotting to pages edges, otherwise a solid clean copy; jacket faded at spine, some wear to corners, a few closed tears, scraping/creasing to rear panel]. Novel about "one of the greatest jazz pianists ever heard on the South Side of Chicago," a supremely talented but self-centered and rebellious musician who "wasn't interested in making money or cutting records or pleasing the crowds who flocked to hear him." Although the book's protagonist, "Virgil Jones" (a white guy, by the way), doesn't appear to have been based directly on any real-life figure, in the words of one critic, he "does personify the ideal of the cool jazz musician of the 1950s," and his integrity and fierce independence bring him into conflict with the jazz establishment, represented by a rival pianist, a powerful agent, and a venal critic. Whitmore never published another novel, but he went on to enjoy a long and successful career as a TV writer (among his credits are the pilot and several episodes of "The Fugitive"). . (Inventory #: 17567)