Dominick Dragon (Signed and Inscribed to De Hirsh Margules) (also Signed Letter)

Possible First (NAP). This book may prove to be a find for anyone who loves or has loved Greenwich Village. It 's signed and inscribed to the painter and Greenwich Village personage De Hirsh Margules. And with the book comes an interesting full-page signed letter from the author to the painter. There are only a few copies of this book for sale on the Internet, only one is signed. In the letter I have, dated in1964, Charles Norman writes 'I had lunch with an agent Monday about 'Dominick Dragon'. She had some very good ideas, and for all I know something is afoot now. If it appears again, as a result, I will dedicate it to you, with some appropriate words.' More on the previous owner of this book from his long Wikipedia profile: 'Most of his friends found Margules generous and voluble, given to broadly emotionally expressive gestures and acts of kindness and loyalty. The Greenwich Village chronicler Charles Norman described the bone-crushing hugs that Margules would bestow on his friends, and speaks of the 'persuasive theatricality' that Margules seemed to have inherited from his actor parents. Norman also wrote about Margules' routine acts of kindness, taking in homeless artists, constantly feeding his friends and providing the salvatory loan where needed. Norman noted that Margules was blessed with a loud and good voice, and was apt to sing an operatic aria without provocation. Margules was such a memorable New York personality that comic book writer Alvin Schwartz imagined him at the Sixth Avenue Cafeteria in a risible yet poignant debate with Clark Kent about whether Superman had the ability to stop Hitler. Alfred Stieglitz was a friend and mentor, becoming for Margules 'what Socrates was to his friends.' Stieglitz introduced Margules to John Marin, who quickly became his most important painterly influence. De Hirsh Margules (1899–1965) was a Romanian-born American 'abstract realist' painter who crossed paths with many major American artistic and intellectual figures of the first half of the 20th century. Elaine de Kooning said that he was 'widely recognized as one of the most gifted and erudite watercolorists in the country.' New York Times critic Howard Devree stated in 1938 that 'Margules uses color in a breath-taking manner. A keen observer, he eliminates scrupulously without distortion of his material.' Devree later called Margules 'one of our most daring experimentalists in the medium.' Margules was also a well-known participant in the bohemian culture of New York City's Greenwich Village, where he was widely known as the 'Baron' of Greenwich Village. The Times described him as 'one of Greenwich Village's best-known personalities' and 'one of the best known and most buoyant characters about the village.' Charles Norman didn't just write light fiction. He was a well-respected poet and biographer. He wrote biographies of fellow poets E. E. Cummings, and Ezra Pound. One also of Christopher Marlowe. 'Dominick Dragon was a happy fellow, which was enough to mark him from other men. He gave the impression of not having grown up, and the uneasy thought that he never would. Nevertheless, he sees a great many things clearly, even if he does allow himself to become entangled from time to time. Joyful and hilarious novel involving a notable cast of characters.' The covers are very clean. There's a bit of crinkling and rubbing at the top and bottom edges of the spine. There's some superficial rubbing on the cover edges, spots of rub-through at the corners. The gilt lettering on the spine gets somewhat lost against the background color. The spine is straight the book is very solidly bound with nicely tight pages throughout. The pages are very clean. I didn't see any conspicuous creasing. There are no markings, no attachments, and no writing excepting the signed inscription.…