Publication Date: 1948
Seller: Xerxes Fine and Rare Books and Documents, Glen Head, NY, U.S.A.
First Edition
Condition: VG. NY 1948 first edition (stated) Knopf. Hardcover octavo. 323p. VG in Good dj designed by Salter (dj lightly toned; price not clipped) with light end and edge fraying,no tears, no chips on dj .) "Mr. Gibbons is to be admire.real concern for human beings and human problems" -- Eudora Welty qtd on dj.
Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1948
Seller: ReadInk, ABAA/IOBA, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
First Edition
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+ dj. Illustrated by (dj design) George Salter (illustrator). First Edition. [boards very slightly bowed outwards, tiny shallow dent in top of front cover; jacket has one tiny chip at top of front panel, very slight paper loss at top of spine, light soiling to rear panel]. The Alabama-born author's second (and apparently last) book, "essentially a novel about Johnny Somers, a frightened young man who suddenly finds himself in a strange world of baffling mazes and tortuous paths; and yet, even more starkly real, it is the heart-breaking story of the pitiable, likable people of a small Southern town." If that jacket-blurb quote seems a little oblique, it didn't prevent the New York Times reviewer from sussing out the real subject of the novel: "Sex is the catalyst in this story of a small Southern town, its small Southern inhabitants, and the small young man who comes to teach history to its high school students. It is by way of sex that the contributing characters are presented and fathomed, that wrongs are righted, revenges taken, and maturity attained, and that the central drama develops. The total effect is roughly that of a detective story of sex -- pace fast, dialogue thin-lipped, and plenty of suspects." Gibbons had received the publisher's "Fellowship in Fiction" award in 1942; his first novel, "Bright is the Morning," was published the following year. After this one appeared, he seems to have faded off the literary scene.