A Book
New York: Boni and Liveright, 1923. 1st Edition. Octavo, publisher's black paper covered boards, printed paper label to spine, original printed dust jacket.
"Well, after he had married her, what then? Satisfy her whim and where would he be? He would be nothing, neither what he had been nor what other people were." First edition of queer modernist writer Djuna Barnes’s first book, a reflection on her situation as one of the Lost Generation of expat writers and artists in Paris between the wars, in the scarce original dust jacket. Often thought of as a one-book author for her novel Nightwood (1936), Barnes produced stories, poems, and plays early in her career. In the late 1910s and early 20s she was moving away from journalism and studying the work of Chekhov, Synge, Strindberg, Ibsen, Joyce, and O'Neill. Deeply influenced by them, she began to publish in the Little Review, Smart Set, Vanity Fair, Dial, and the Sunday Telegraph. This collection of stories, plays, and poems was twice reissued with alternative titles and expanded content, as A Night Among the Horses (1929) and Spillway (1962). Illustrated with six drawings on blue paper by the author. Fading to head of spine, minor edgewear to boards; unclipped dust jacket with some chipping to spine-ends, some edgewear, and moderate soiling. Very good. Item #12187
$900.00