Description

THE “MASTER OF STYLE AND SUSPENSE” RARE FIRST EDITION OF GREENE’S NINETEEN STORIES, WARMLY INSCRIBED BY HIM IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION

GREENE, Graham. Nineteen Stories. London: William Heinemann, (1947). Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of Greene’s scarce second collection of stories, inscribed by him in the year of publication, “For Giacomo Antoni, from Graham Greene, in memory of a very pleasant meeting. Dec. 1947.”

Graham Greene, the 20th-century’s “master of style and suspense,” selected 19 tales for this second collection of his stories (New York Times). Featured are two published for the first time, “The Second Death” and “The Lottery Ticket,” several appearing in book form for the first time, and eight from his first collection The Basement Room (1935). Prominent among those Greene felt “worthy of inclusion in the new collection” (Sherry II:211) is the second printing in book form of “The Basement Room,” whose harrowing tale of a young boy witnessing a murder became the basis for the 1948 film The Fallen Idol. In adapting this story to the screen, Green earned an Oscar nomination, and began a memorable collaboration with director Carol Reed and producer Alexander Korda that, together with The Third Man (1949), created “two of the greatest films of the immediate postwar era” (Sherry II:239). With “Author’s Note”; original dust jacket with list of “New and Forthcoming Fiction” in red ink. Miller 24. Hubin, 180. See Metz, 557; Thomson, 363-7.

Book fine; light edge-wear, toning to spine of bright unrestored dust jacket. An exceptional about-fine copy, scarce inscribed.