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THE FOUNTAIN OVERFLOWS
by REBECCA WEST
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Fine/Very Good+
- Seller
-
West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
The Fountain Overflows is a 1957 best-seller by the British author, journalist and critic Rebecca West (1892-1983).
In it, she transmutes her own volatile childhood into enduring art. This is an unvarnished but affectionate picture of an extraordinary family, in which a remarkable stylist and powerful intelligence surveys the elusive boundaries of childhood and adulthood, freedom and dependency, the ordinary and the occult.
It was published in the UK, became an instant best-seller and, by 1966, was in its fourth printing in the USA. This is a copy of that printing, published by Viking.
The dust jacket is dark pink with gold, black and white on the cover and spine. It is a little worn--just with small tears at top and bottom. The spine of the jacket is faded to pale pink. It is unclipped and has the American price tag on it.
The book is in perfect condition. Red with an impressed design on the cover and then a beige spine with a gilt and red design.
On West's dedication page, someone has noted that it is a gift to someone, but the writing is attractive. The recipient didn't read the book though--the spine has not been cracked. All pages are clean and clear and there is no interior damage of any kind.
Lovely book.
Note: If you are outside of North America, the quoted shipping price is for surface mail without tracking. For other options, please contact me.
Synopsis
Rebecca West (1892-1983) was born Cicily Isabel Fairfield, the youngest of three daughters of Charles Fairfield, a journalist in London, and Isabel Mackenzie, a talented pianist who supported her family by giving music lessons. Fairfield was a brilliant storyteller who entertained his daughters with tales of wild adventures in America and Australia, but he was moody and unreliable, and in 1901 he left his wife and children to go to Sierra Leone, where he hoped to start a pharmaceutical plant. The plan failed, and he returned to London, though not to his family, dying when Cicily was fourteen. Inspired by such stars of the stage as Sarah Bernhardt and Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Cicily hoped to become an actress, and in 1910 she enrolled in the Academy of Dramatic Art. Soon, however, she abandoned her theatrical ambitions and joined the staff of the feminist journal The Freewoman , for which she began to write regularly under the name of Rebecca West (adopted after playing that character in a performance of Ibsen’s Rosmersholm ). Among Rebecca West’s protean accomplishments are critical studies of two writers she deeply admired, Henry James and D.H. Lawrence; Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), a vast work about pre-World War II Yugoslavia that combines history, political analysis, and vivid descriptions of travel; The Meaning of Treason (1947); and several novels, beginning with The Return of the Soldier (1918) and including The Fountain Overflows (1956), which is closely modeled on the events of her own childhood. Andrea Barrett is the author of five novels, most recently The Voyage of the Narwhal , and two collections of short fiction, Ship Fever , which received the 1996 National Book Award, and Servants of the Map . A MacArthur Fellow, she was also a Fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Louise Aird
(CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 642
- Title
- THE FOUNTAIN OVERFLOWS
- Author
- REBECCA WEST
- Format/Binding
- Perfect
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good+
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 4th Printing
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Viking Press
- Place of Publication
- United States
- Date Published
- 1966
- Pages
- 435
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- poltergeists, coming of age
- Bookseller catalogs
- British Fiction; Biography, Autobiography, True Stories;
Terms of Sale
Louise Aird
All sales are final. If a book arrives damaged, please contact me.
About the Seller
Louise Aird
Biblio member since 2019
West Vancouver, British Columbia
About Louise Aird
Private individual who has been collecting books for 40 years.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Cracked
- In reference to a hinge or a book's binding, means that the glue which holds the opposing leaves has allowed them to separate,...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
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