THE LIVES OF BERYL MARKHAM: Out of Africa's Hidden Free Spirit and Denys Finch Hatton's Last Great Love. by [Markham, Beryl. 1902-1986] Trzebinski, Errol - (1993)

New York:: W. W. Norton & Company,, (1993). Hardcover first edition -. Very good in a very near fine dust jacket (binding cracking between pp 146-147, but the book is still tight and straight, bump to top edge of rear board).. First US printing. A biography of this aviatrix who won fame with her transatlantic solo flight in 1936, one which "peels away the layers of myth in Markham's popular memoir, 'West with the Night', to reveal a sexually insatiable woman whose charisma concealed a selfish, ruthless, insecure self-doubter. Trzebinski knew Markham for many years in Kenya, where the future ace pilot, racehorse trainer and royal courtesan to Edward, Prince of Wales and to the Duke of Gloucester was raised by her English father, a rampant colonialist, and by Masai servants. . . The gutsy aviator's obsessive affair with rakish pilot/safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton, whose other mistress was Danish Baroness Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), is fully disclosed here. Also presented is compelling evidence that 'West with the Night' was written by Markham's third husband, Hollywood ghostwriter Raoul Schumacher." (Publishers Weekly) Illustrated with photographs. Notes, references, index. xx, 396 pp.