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SKETCH OF A SINNER
By Frank Swinnerton
London: Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers), LTD, no date [1929]. First edition (24 pages of advertisements dated Autumn, 1929). Mild lean to the spine, lower rear corner bumped, else very good in pale orange cloth with titles and rules in black; lacking the dust jacket. A love story featuring a heroine (the "Sinner"), whose personality is revealed against the backdrop of London and a French sea-coast resort. Our copy bears a dated (1929) inscription, SIGNED by the author, to Judith and Donald Bond. Judith Bond was curator of modern poetry at the University of Chicago and her husband Donald was a professor of English literature at the university. Laid in, and also of scholarly interest, is a four page corrected typescript by Judith Bond, titled "To Old Tokefield", dated October 24, 1929 in ink. The typescript details the Bond's trip to England to visit Swinnerton at his sixteenth century house, Old Tokefield, Cranleigh, Surrey. The typescript is very descriptive with much information about the house, the furnishings, the inhabitants, their lunch with Swinnerton, and table conversation. Swinnerton lived at Old Tokefield for more than fifty years. He was a novelist, critic, biographer and essayist, who as a publisher's editor assisted many authors, including Aldous Huxley. He had many great contemporary authors as his friends including H.G. Wells, John Galsworthy, and Arnold Bennett. Swinnerton lived a long full live, dying in 1982 at the age of 98. "My best books, in my own opinion, are Harvest Comedy and The Georgian Literary Scene, but I do not regard either one as of lasting importance.... I live in the country, am very lazy, work unwillingly very hard, and have few intolerances." A scarce first edition with a pleasant inscription and associated typescript. FREE SHIPPING to USA. PLEASE VIEW FOR MORE GREAT BOOKS THANKS! |