We Happy Few (Signed copy)

1946. First US edition (the first UK edition was in the following year). [ix], 345pp. plus a brief 1-page biography of the author. Helen Howe (1905-1975) was an American novelist, biographer and monologist. We Happy Few is her second novel. It is the story of Dorothea Natwick, as she rejects rough, middle western Walt to marry staid, serious John Calcott, old Boston and now on the Harvard faculty. The war brings a breakup to Dorothea's life, her circle of complacent, ""interesting"" and insular colleagues, and John goes away to fight. Bored and lonely, Dorothea has an affair with Gordon, who is recognizably cheap, and who, when John is reported killed, checks out very quickly. She nurses in a hospital which shakes her up further; gets the last body blow when Wait returns, now at the height of a national career and still attracted to her, but not enough to make him overlook the narrowness of her mind and heart. The book is not to be confused with the action-adventure video game of the same title, developed by Compulsion Games. The book is bound in the original grey cloth covered boards with gold titling against a red background on the spine and a gold stamped facsimile signature of the author on the front board. The case of the book is in good to very good condition with shelf wear and some soiling to the boards and light bumping to the top corners. The spine is cocked with light soiling and a few small marks and the titling is noticeably worn. The spine ends are bumped with a small bit of damage to the top rear spine corner. The contents are tight and clean with browning and some foxing to the endpapers. Although there is no splitting to the endpapers down the spine gutter, the book does feel slightly loose. The author has inscribed the front free endpaper thus: "Mabel and Aunt Helen with love from their devoted Helen." 'Mabel' was her cousin Mabel Hopkins (nee Muirhead) who married Gerard Hopkins (1892-1961), a novelist and nephew of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Aunt Helen (nee Quincy) was her mother's sister and from the prominent Boston Quincy family.…