Description

“ONE OF THE FEW BOOKS BY AN AMERICAN WRITER ‘TO BEAR THE SPIRITUAL IMPRINT OF RECENT HISTORY IN THE WESTERN WORLD”: VERY SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF THE SHELTERING SKY, SIGNED BY PAUL BOWLES

BOWLES, Paul. The Sheltering Sky. London: John Lehmann, (1949). Octavo, original slate gray cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of Paul Bowles’ celebrated first novel, signed on the title page by the author, exceptionally scarce signed.

After a brief stay in Tangier in the early 1930s, Paul Bowles returned home to New York and with wife Jane Bowles became “immersed in a literary world? One night in 1947 Bowles had a dream about ‘the magic city’ of Tangier? and he decided to return there. Before departing, he had an idea for a novel that would take place in the Sahara, and he thought of a title, ‘The Sheltering Sky,’ borrowing it from the popular song, ‘Down Among the Sheltering Palms.” Arriving in Tangier, Bowles, previously known as a composer and poet, began working on the novel—his first. Several American publishers rejected the work before English publisher John Lehmann brought it out in the late summer of 1949, with a printing of 4000 copies and preceding the first American edition by several months. “The Sheltering Sky quickly became the foundation of Bowles’ estimable career as an author, and it is still at the core of his literary legacy. Mr. Bowles described the book as ‘an adventure story in which the adventures takes place on two planes simultaneously: in the actual desert and in the inner desert of the spirit? Reviewing the book in the New York Times Book Review, Tennessee Williams proclaimed the author ‘a talent of true maturity and sophistication.’ Williams said it was one of the few books by an American writer ‘to bear the spiritual imprint of recent history in the Western world? Idolized by writers of the Beat Generation,” Bowles became a writer whose works epitomized a “world in which innocence is corrupted and delirium thrives” (New York Times). The 1990 Golden Globe-winning film adaptation, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, starred Debra Winger and John Malkovich, with Bowles featured in a cameo role. Given Bowles’ longtime residence in North Africa, signed copies of the novel are exceedingly scarce. Bookseller ticket. Text fine, very slight edge-wear to original cloth; light toning to spine, tiny closed tear to rear upper edge of bright, fine original dust jacket. A beautiful copy, most scarce in this condition and particularly signed.