THE PILGRIM HAWK: A LOVE STORY

New York City, NY: Harper & Row, 1966. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Harper & Row, 1966. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 127 pages. Facsimile Reissued Edition of the author's novel. One of the greatest American novels of the 20th century. The 1966 First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the 1970 Edition and the 2001 NYRB Softcover Edition. Published in a small and limited print run as a hardcover original only. Except for its blue cloth boards, the edition is exactly the same as the 1940 First Edition, which is in red cloth boards. As such, the Copyright Page mentions only the latter. There is no ISBN. The First Edition Thus is now rare. A brilliant production by Harper & Row: Regular-sized volume format. Pale blue cloth boards with gilt-silver facsimile of the author's signature on the cover and matching gilt-silver titles on the spine, as issued. Text by Glenway Wescott. Printed on archival stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Almost sixty years later, the paper remains near-pristine. In pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Re-presents, in a lovely format, Glenway Wescott's "The Pilgrim Hawk: A Love Story". His undisputed masterpiece. Speak, Memory: Incidents that took place in the space of a few hours on an otherwise uneventful afternoon are recounted with descriptive power and vivid detail twenty years later. Having left an indelible impression on him, the narrator vividly remembers every small incident, every tiny particle, of the one afternoon involving a couple, the wife bearing a pilgrim hawk perched, spectacularly and provocatively, on her arm. In her effort to re-locate the novel where it belongs, in the American literary pantheon, Susan Sontag wrote one of her best essays about it, and then made it the eponymous essay of her final collection: "Where The Stress Falls" (2001). The NYRB Reissued Softcover Edition has an interesting Introduction by esteemed Michael Cunningham. "Truly a work of art, of the kind so very rarely achieved" (Christopher Isherwood). An absolute "must-have" title for Glenway Wescott collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed, dated, placed, and inscribed in black fountain pen on the title page by the author: "For Nancy and Ted Morgan, with admiration and affection, quite quickly, Glenway W. Feb. 23 '77 NYC". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Wescott's handwriting is unusually elegant and beautiful while his sweet dedication deliberately alludes to the story of the novel itself! The couple-recipients, who are named, clearly met and became friends - quickly - with the author. This title is a great book. This is the only such uniquely signed, dated, placed, and inscribed copy of the First Edition Thus/First Printing (1966) available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. It is the single most beautiful copy we have ever come across. Please note: Copies available online have very serious flaws. In particular, it is NOT price-clipped, as most copies of the edition available online are. A rare signed copy thus. One of the finest American writers of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER GLENWAY WESCOTT TITLE IN OUR CATALOG).