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Stated First Edition. This book was previously owned by Maxwell Geismar, a highly regarded literary critic, and biographer. His connection to this book is no doubt related to the author Thomas Wolfe. The Journey Down is 'a narrative of the relationship between a lovely, sensitive woman and a young writer.' The book is based on the author's romantic relationship with Thomas Wolfe. Three years after it was published, Geismar's book 'Writers In Crisis. The American Novel: 1925-1940, Ring Lardner, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, and John Steinbeck, was published. Five years after that the Portable Thomas Wolfe was published, edited by Mr. Geismar. His last name is penciled on the blank first front end paper. But, more importantly, there are a significant number of penciled notations in the margins of the book, and on the blank rear end paper he jotted down a dozen or so page numbers with a penciled comment beside each. He was clearly using the book in preparing for his own. On page 171 he writes 'Strange love. Wolfe uses her and she likes to be used, but too sure of her use.' And on another page '1st love scene precious but unique.' From Wikipedia: 'Aline Bernstein was an American set designer and costume designer. She and Irene Lewisohn founded the Museum of Costume Art. Bernstein was the lover, patron, and muse of novelist Thomas Wolfe. Bernstein met Wolfe in 1925 aboard the RMS Olympic when he was 25 and she 44.] She became his lover, providing emotional, domestic, and financial support while he wrote his first novel, Look Homeward, Angel, which he dedicated to her. Wolfe immortalized Bernstein as the character Esther Jack in his novels Of Time and the River, The Web and the Rock, You Can't Go Home Again, and The Good Child's River. Bernstein, in turn, centered her autobiographical novel The Journey Down around her affair with Wolfe. Bernstein's and Wolfe's affair ended after five years, but their friendship continued. One of Wolfe's last phone calls, when he was dying in 1938 at the age of 37, was to tell Bernstein he loved her. At the time of his death, Bernstein possessed some of Wolfe's unpublished manuscripts.' You can see the covers of the book in the photos. They have conspicuous toning at the margins and on the spine. There's an indented crease at the front bottom corner, a tiny tear off the spine's top edge and a spot of soiling on the rear cover along with a few creases. The spine has a slightly forward lean, but the book is solidly bound from cover to cover and the covers are tightly bound. The aforementioned cover dent created a like crease at the bottom corners of most of the pages, ending only late in the book. There is a tip of the top corner crease on a half-dozen consecutive pages. The pages look pretty clean, just a fairly small number of light spots. There are no markings and no attachments. You can see the jacket in the first few photos. I've always had it in a fitted protective cover. There are significant losses. The rear cover is quite toned and has something penciled on it. The flaps look pretty good, one tiny tear off the top edge of the rear flap. The jacket is NOT price-clipped, not clipped at all. The Journey Down was Ms. Bernstein's first novel. The publisher raves 'This is a narrative of the relationship between a lovely, sensitive woman and a young writer, which conveys the ecstasy and the pain of love so beautifully that there is no contemporary book with which it can be compared.' Ms. Bernstein studied painting with Robert Henri and later became one of the foremost scenic designers of her day, working with Gilbert Miller, Eva Le Gallienne and the Theater Guild. She did the set designs for the original Broadway productions of Grand Hotel and The Children's Hour, among many others. She won a Tony for costume design (opera Regina) in 1950. In the 2016 biographical film Genius, Bernstein was portrayed by Nicole Kidman, while Wolfe was portrayed by Jude Law. Seller Inventory # 004237
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