THE SWAN IN THE EVENING - Fragments of an Inner Life (First edition - first printing)

First printing of the true first edition, published by William Collins in 1967. Dustwrapper design by Kenneth Farnhill. ***Very good in duotone blue and red cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on a black block on the spine. The gilt is still beautifully bright, having been protected by the dustwrapper. The boards are clean and unmarked. Head and tail of spine slightly creased. Page block edges lightly foxed. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally near fine with no ownership details. Pages clean and bright, with no offsetting to the endpapers and no internal foxing. No tears or creases. Pages clean. ***In a very good colour-illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's price of 21s. net. The dustwrapper is complete with no loss and hardly any wear. Extremities of dustwrapper just slightly rubbed, mainly at the top and tail of the spine and corner tips of the foldovers. No creases or tears. The back panel, which is white, is slightly marked and discoloured, and there is some uneven browning. The spine is also slightly marked and browned but there is no fading to the spine colour. ***214mm x145mm. 156 pages. ***'Rosamond Nina Lehmann CBE (3 Feb 1901 - 12 Mar 1990) was an English novelist and translator. Her first novel, "Dusty Answer" (1927), was a succès de scandale; she subsequently became established in the literary world, and intimate with members of the Bloomsbury set. The novel's heroine, Judith, is attracted to both men and women, and interacts with fairly openly gay and lesbian characters during her years at Cambridge. Lehmann went on to publish six more novels - her novel "The Ballad and the Source" received particular critical acclaim - as well as a play ("No More Music", 1939), a collection of short stories ("The Gypsy's Baby & Other Stories", 1946), a spiritual autobiography ("The Swan in the Evening", 1967), and a photographic memoir of her friends ("Rosamond Lehmann's Album", 1985), many of whom were famous (Bloomsbury Group). She also translated two French novels into English: Jacques Lemarchand's "Genevieve" (1948) and Jean Cocteau's 1929 novel "Les Enfants Terribles" as "The Holy Terrors" (1955).' (Wiki) ***'Rosamond Lehmann's only autobiographical work recreates the events that shaped her life - from childhood to motherhood to the death of her daughter. Rosamond Lehmann was born during a violent February thunderstorm and lived a sheltered, privileged life with her family. Writing from the distance of decades, she reveals why no adult would ever apologize to a child, shares thoughts on her "first conscious memory," and discusses the taboo subjects of "birth, death, physical and sexual functions." Later, she recounts the tragedy that rocked her world as a mother. A blackbird with a broken neck appears as a harbinger of doom: A few hours after finding the bird, Lehmann receives a phone call from her son telling her that her twenty-four-year-old daughter, Sally, is dead. Wracked with grief and desperate for answers, Lehmann, a non-believer, finds solace in spiritualism. Beginning with an examination of Lehmann's singular childhood featuring cherished friends and pets, and concluding with an extraordinary letter to her granddaughter Anna, The Swan in the Evening is about the search for peace and acceptance-and finding hope in the face of unbearable loss.' ***A very good copy of the first true first printing of the true first edition, complete in the original dustwrapper. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. …