Description

FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY, OF THE QUIET AMERICAN, INSCRIBED BY GRAHAM GREENE TO HIS SOLICITOR

GREENE, Graham. The Quiet American. London: William Heinemann, (1955). Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition, presentation copy, of Greene’s controversial and “tart study of an American Government do-gooder in Saigon,” inscribed to his solicitor: “For Harold Rubinstein in gratitude & friendship from Graham Greene,” in scarce original dust jacket.

“I think a writer ought to be a bit of grit in the state machine,” Graham Greene once said. In this “tart study of an American Government do-gooder in Saigon during the anti-French uprisings of the mid-1950s” (New York Times), Greene’s critically praised novel proves “urgent, mournful and unsparing? there’s not another book quite like it” (Salon). Adapted to the screen in 1958, and again in 2002 with Michael Caine. Miller 35a. This copy is inscribed to Harold Rubinstein, Graham Greene’s solicitor in London. Rubinstein specialized in obscenity and libel suits. He was also solicitor for Jonathan Cape, Greene’s publisher. In addition to conducting standard legal representation, Rubinstein also initiated correspondence with the Holy Office on Greene’s behalf when, in 1954, Rome denounced The Power and the Glory as containing plot elements that ran contrary to Catholic doctrine. The incident was a formative one for Greene, and Rubinstein’s counsel and friendship during the period was, as this inscription indicates, greatly valued.

Book with only slight soiling to cloth and a bit of toning to extremities. Lovely dust jacket with only a few tiny spots of foxing and mild toning. A nearly fine inscribed copy with an outstanding association.