Ginkgo Tree by Jarrett Cora (8 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good- dj. First Edition. [a good sound copy, with some mild smudging/soiling on the front cover; the jacket is moderately edgeworn, with small tears and a bit of paper loss at the spine ends, a short closed tear and some associated creasing at the bottom of the front panel, and an unfortunate hole torn in the front panel (about 1.5" tall and roughly in the shape of Maine)] The second novel by this Virginia-born author (1877-1969), who began writing in her fifties and authored a handful of genre-straddling novels, some with supernatural elements and all with a Southern Gothic flavor. (Several of her books are listed in both Bleiler and Hubin, which will give you some idea of their dual nature.) The jacket blurb is vaguely non-descriptive in that special jacket-blurb manner -- referring to "abstruse passion told in terms of everyday American life" and "the strength of character exerting itself in the face of inner mental struggle" and "of emotions beyond the normal" and "moments of real horror," while all the while you're saying to yourself, "yeah, but what's it ABOUT?" Well, I'll tell you: it's about a very unhappy young man of 25, just returned to his Southern hometown after three years of study in Paris, who is suffering from a bunch of personal and psychological issues, chief among which is an obsessive hatred for his father. The complex narrative, which unfolds largely in flashback, ultimately reveals that the father was a thorougly villainous fellow who reciprocated his son's hatred, and who had been responsible for numerous abuses of both his wife and son (which I won't spoil by revealing here) which had contributed to the latter's sorry state of mind and emotion.

8vo Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. 339p. Bound in deeply toned yellow cloth with deckled edges, black lettering and red lines. Some stains and foxing present on surfaces. Top edge is sprayed red. Ghost remnants of erased pencil inscription on front endpaper. Interior is otherwise unmarked. Binding is tight with securely attached hinges. Copyright 1935 on the verso. Lacks a jacket.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. The book is bound in yellow boards with bright black letters + red lines on the front cover & spine. There is very light wear on the spine tips & cover corners. There is a 5 cm long small brown spot on the back cover. The top edge is stained red. There is an ink "W" on the front endpaper. The contents are clean & unmarked, the binding is tight. "Copyright 1935" on the verso.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. 1st Edition. Yellow cloth. 8vo. 339pp. Pictorial dust jacket (not price-clipped). First edition with publisher's monogram on copyright page. A novel by the Virginia-born author of "Night Over Fitch's Pond" and other works with a flavor of psychological intrigue and Southern gothic content. A very good copy with some soiling to the cloth. There is an ink checkmark to the front flyleaf else the text is very good with light soiling. The jacket has some soiling and wear and a two-inch closed tear to the upper rear panel. The jacket spine is chipped and has a small white paint mark at the top. It has been reinforced on the reverse side with tape which has browned. Despite these defects the jacket presents well.

Hardcover. First Edition; First Printing. Very Good+ in a Fair dust jacket. Edge wear and soiling. Closed tears to front and rear panels' upper edges. Crown and heel of spine chipped. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall.

First Edition. A scarce Bleiler listed psychological thriller. "Mrs. Jarrett subtly interweaves her strange psychological detail with the absorbing progress of her unusual narrative. She writes definitely of emotions beyond the normal; of elements in life which the reader recognizes with a shudder as being more normal than he, perhaps, cares to admit." Near Fine in Very Good dustjacket.

First UK edition, first impression, published simultaneously with the US edition, this copy in strikingly attractive condition. Cora Hardy Jarrett (1877-1969) began writing in her 50s, first publishing under the pseudonym of Faraday Keene before writing a series of supernatural mysteries under her own name, which Bleiler includes in his Checklist of Supernatural and Fantasy Literature. Jarrett studied widely, including at the Sorbonne and Oxford, and taught Greek and English for much of her career. Her works "are truly Southern Gothic wherever they may be set" and are "deep probings into abnormal psychology which move across the boundary into supernatural" (Reilly, p. 858). John M. Reilly, ed., Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers, 1980. Octavo. Original green cloth, titles to spine in black. With dust jacket. Spine slightly cocked and toned, light rubbing to board edges, top edge faintly dust toned, spots of foxing to fore edge and outer leaves, light offsetting to endpapers, contents clean and bright; a very good copy in the attractive jacket, spine folds and edges faded, small mark to rear panel, unclipped.

First edition. First edition. Fine in dust jacket, with light professional restoration to the spine ends. "Mrs. Jarrett subtly interweaves her strange psychological detail with the absorbing progress of her unusual narrative. She writes definitely of emotions beyond the normal; of elements in life which the reader recognizes with a shudder as being more normal than he, perhaps, cares to admit." An absorbing psychological thriller with its strange detail until the final moments of real horror.