Description

“I HAVE KILLED HER SON AND I AM NOT? WITHOUT IMAGINATION”: EXTREMELY RARE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY OF GRAHAM GREENE’S NAME OF ACTION, INSCRIBED TO HIS BROTHER

GREENE, Graham. The Name of Action. London: William Heinemann, (1930). Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition, first issue of Greene’s rarely seen second novel, whose publication was quickly suppressed by Greene, this exceptional presentation/association copy inscribed to his older brother, “Herbert Greene, from Graham Greene.”

Graham Greene, that “subversive hero” who forever sought, “in Browning’s words, ‘the dangerous edge of things,’ followed the success of his first novel The Man Within (1929) with this powerful tale of dictatorship and revolution (New York Times). But this much anticipated work, titled after a final line in Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy, met with mixed reviews. Though praised by the Times Literary Supplement, the novel “sold barely 2,000 copies” (Sherry I:381-4). Greene took the reviews much to heart; he withdrew “The Name of Action from the body of his work, and no other editions [other than the American] or reprints exist” (Wobbe). Thus a first edition is rarely found. Name of Action “exists only in the first English and American editions of 1930 and 1931 respectively” (Miller 8). First issue dust jacket, with “7/6” price. This exceptionally rare presentation/association copy is inscribed to Greene’s older brother Herbert, who “was important to Graham not only as the source of Anthony Farrant in England Made Me [1935], but as the vacuum-cleaner salesman in Our Man in Havanna [1938] who successfully cons British Intelligence” (Sherry I:614). Faint trace of erasure to title page.

Interior fine with light edge-wear and minor rubbing to original cloth; some edge-wear and mild tape reinforcement to verso of bright unrestored dust jacket. An exceptionally desirable, very good copy with an especially memorable provenance.