The Dorp (Signed)

Frieda Arkin

Published by The Dial Press, New York, 1969

About this Item

Stated First Printing, First Edition. And here's where it gets interesting: the book's signed and inscribed on the first front end paper to 'Bruce Hungerford.' It's not the most common name and I think there's a decent likelihood that this was the Austrialian-born pianist 'known for the majority of his career as Leonard Hungerford whose career was cut short by his death in a road accident in New York. In 1965 Leonard Hungerford changed his name to Bruce Hungerford.' You can read more about him in his Wikipedia profile and N.Y. Times obituary.The inscription is on the first front end paper. It reads 'To Bruce Hungerford, warmly Frieda Arkin.' There is what appears to be a blank price sticker underneath his last name (see photo). The Dorp was Frieda Arkin's first novel. Her work had been twice selected for Best American Short Stories and The Dorp received much critical acclaim (see below). Nevertheless, for the next 35 years, she turned her attention from writing fiction to raising a family and writing a series of cookbooks. In 2005 her novel Hedwig and Berti was published. About it the novelist Elinor Lipman wrote 'My new favorite novel. Characters and storytelling like this belong in the Fiction Hall of Fame, in the wing reserved for wry and sly masterpieces.' As you can see from the photos, the covers are in very good condition, very clean. The only imperfection I see is a little bit of light discoloration on parts of the bottom edges. The spine is slightly slanted forward, but the book is very solidly bound from cover to cover, and the pages are nicely tight throughout. They're also very clean. I'm scrolling through and not finding any instances of soiling. That includes the inside covers and end papers. The book is 360 pages long. I'm also not seeing any conspicuous creasing. There are no markings. No attachments. And with the exception of the author's signed inscription, no one has written their name or anything else anywhere in the book. The dust jacket is in very solid shape. There's light wear off the spine ends, a little color fading on the spine. There's a little crinkling off the front top edge and a closed tear near the top edge of the rear. The flaps look very good. The jacket is NOT price-clipped, not clipped at all. It'll be fitted with a protective cover after the photos are scanned. From Kirkus Reviews: 'Kuyper's Dorp is a vestigial Dutch community in upstate New York; under the "inherent changelessness" from side porch to cemetery is an obdurate narrowness of heart and mind. This is the impression Miss Arkin conveys with tenacious truth as ordinary people go about their business with watchful eyes and busy tongues. To introduce some of them--take Elizabeth Rust who is fighting childlessness and age and whose overly amiable husband Archie is accidentally killed on the road; or Doris Osterhout of the local Grand American Lunch whose opinions are solid as the virtues of her cooking; or J.C. Barrows, a widower who runs the newspaper by day but is a nightmare ridden nightwalker; or Evelyn Clancy, a stubborn alcoholic who insists "I know that my liver redeemeth" to the soulless, salvational minister Mackail; and on. Miss Arkin's novel, while never lapsing into the mundane, has a firm grasp of the prosaic texture of life and people which gives it a particularized consistency. From beginning to end she's self-evidently a writer of intelligent character and substantive conviction who makes few sentimental concessions to Our Town while retaining one's undiminished interest.' From the Dust Jacket: 'A town in upstate New York is the setting and the protagonist for this extraordinary first novel. Like a Bruegel painting, The Dork renders a particular community and landscape with such richness and truth of detail as to transcend its own limits of time and space--Kuyper's Dorp, the world Frieda Arkin has created, is the finest representation of an American town since Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio.'. Seller Inventory # 002911

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Dorp (Signed)

Publisher: The Dial Press, New York

Publication Date: 1969

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition