Whither

POWELL, Dawn

Published by Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, 1925

About this Item

First edition. Ownership signature of Gertrude Kessel dated March 9, 1925 (the book was published in late February of that year), two contemporary clippings affixed to the front endpapers (a review of this book, and a Heywood Broun article about Powell), a little cocked, else a near fine copy lacking the rare dust jacket. Powell's rare first novel, a blatantly autobiographical novel about a small town girl in her twenties from the Midwest aspiring to become a writer in New York, haunting Greenwich Village, drinking in speakeasies, finding romance and success, and finally tarted up at the conclusion with an uncharacteristic and unbelievable happy ending. According to biographer Tim Page: "Powell disavowed the book almost immediately, well before her second novel, "She Walks in Beauty," was promoted as her debut in 1928. Thereafter, she refused even to acknowledge "Whither" in her biography or in lists of her publications.she.was quite put out when her young friend Hannah Green found a copy in a secondhand bookstore in the early 1960s." A reputable source confirms that Powell later went out of her way to purchase and destroy copies, which may be why this one of the very few copies we've seen. The owner, Gertrude Kessel was the sister of Helen Kessel, Dawn Powell's first roommate in New York, in 1919, when Powell first mustered out of the U.S. Navy after WWI. Helen Kessel and her eventual husband Harry Lissfelt, were the witnesses at Powell's wedding to Joseph Gousha. The spurned first novel of an iconic New York writer, with a New York association.

Seller Inventory # 584017

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Whither
• Publisher: Small, Maynard & Company, Boston
• Publication Date: 1925
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine