April Twilights
Boston: Richard G. Badger, The Gorham Press, 1903. First edition. Original boards, cover and spine labels. Slight wear to the top end of the spine, small chip missing from the label, split in front hinge over paper; otherwise a very good copy. Crane A1.a. First edition of Cather's first book, published at her own expense. Accompanied by the rare (one of two examples known to us) "Literary Note," a slip measuring 7-1/8 in. x 3-1/2 in. written by Cather as a promotional piece for April Twilights. Joan Crane, in her "Willa Cather: A Bibliography" (1982),p. 5, cities American Book Prices Current for 1930, noting a copy of April Twilights with a tipped-in "Literary Note", and concluding, although never seeing it, that it was "an announcement flyer for the book in the form of an advertisement and order form issued by the publisher...." In 1997 we discovered this example of what was then the only known surviving example of this note, and identified it as being of Cather's authorship, it was acquired by David H. Porter and is discussed in his "On the Divide: The Many Lives of Willa Cather." In fact, it is a slightly revised or updated version of her autobiographical sketch published in It first appeared in The Writer (June [1900]: 90). Item #32231
Price: $2,750.00