Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Description: This fourth printing copy has the ownership signature of "Madeleine L'Engle Camp / March 4, 1941 / Bird-in-Hand-Court" to the front pastedown in black ink. The three short novels are: Old Mortality, Noon Wine, and Pae Horse, Pale Rider. From the gothic Old South to revolutionary Mexico, few writers have evoked such a multitude of worlds, both exterior and interior, as powerfully as Katherine Anne Porter. This collection gathers together the best of her Pulitzer Prize-winning short fiction, including 'Pale Horse, Pale Rider', where a young woman lies in a fever during the influenza epidemic, her childhood memories mingling with fears for her fiancé on his way to war, and 'Noon Wine', a haunting story of tragedy and scandal on a small dairy farm in Texas. In all of the compelling stories collected here, harsh and tragic truths are expressed in prose both brilliant and precise. As for Madeleine L'Engle, she is perhaps best recognized as the author of A Wrinkle in Time (1962), the enduring milestone work of fantasy fiction that won the 1963 John Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature and has enthralled millions of readers. A very good copy bound in light green cloth (spine sunned) lacking the dust jacket
Seller: Ed Smith Books, ABAA, Bainbridge Island, WA, U.S.A.
Price: US$850.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo. Green cloth with dark green lettering, price-clipped dust jacket. 264pp. Very good/very good. Binding faintly worn, though internally tight and near fine; jacket a tad edgeworn with a few tiny edge chips (mainly corners), though complete and overall attractive. Nice first edition of this compilation of the novellas "Old Mortality," "Noon Wine" and the title tale. This interesting presentation copy is boldly inscribed and signed by Porter on the front flyleaf "For Margaret Harvey / Old Mortality vanquished / so far! / Katherine Anne / Aug. 3 1942." In 1918 Porter worked briefly for the "Rocky Mountain News" in Denver, and there befriended fellow journalist Harvey. Below her inscription, Harvey adds her own dates of employment at this newspaper: "Denver: September 1: October 15, 1918-1919." Porter left the paper when the 1918 flu pandemic nearly killed her; when discharged from the hospital she was bald and her hair grew back white -- and the ordeal from which she felt "vanquished" informs these tales. (Forty-seven years later Porter wrote Harvey a long letter in which she chatted about their time at the "Rocky Mountain News" and how it provided the framework for "Pale Horse.") An intriguing copy of a scarce title.
Seller: Main Street Fine Books & Mss, ABAA, Galena, IL, U.S.A.