A Lost Lady

WILLA CATHER

Publication: Alfred A Knopf, 1923, New York

First trade edition. Light green cloth, titles (not Cather's name) stamped in gilt at the upper front cover and spine, color decorated front and rear endpapers, 173 [1] pp., with maroon top stain unfaded. A sharp copy of Cather's sixth novel, centered around "a lady lost between the nineteenth century and its values and the hurly-burly and changing modes of the twentieth century. In an age when woman's life consisted of dependence on man, she would have been a lady; in the twentieth century, she was scarcely that" (Coan, p.115). Prior to publication, A Lost Lady was serialized in Century magazine (April-June, 1923); Alfred Knopf published the first printing in a run of 20,000 copies – at the time, the largest edition of any book he had printed since founding the publishing house in 1915. The novel was a significant influence on F. Scott Fitzgerald while writing The Great Gatsby, and basis for two film adaptations between 1924-1934. Crane A13.a.i. Fine, bright copy in dust jacket housed in the original, unprinted presentation carton. There may be another copy as nice as this one, but none better.

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