Chapters From A Floating Life, The Autobiography of a Chinese Artist

1st edition hardback with dust jacket Nice copy octavo xiv + 108pp., Shen Fu, writer and painter, who was a native of Soochow, was born in 1763 and died sometime alter 1809. Although he had a studio in Soochow for a time he found that he could not make a living out of his paintings and for much of his life was miserably poor. He was sustained by his beloved wife Chen Yun, who died in 1803 after twenty-three years of marriage, and he movingly commemorates their mutual devotion in his enchanting biography.