Chatwin, Bruce

On the Black Hill

ISBN: 0670524921
New York, NY: The Viking Press, 1983. First American Edition. Hardcover. "Lewis and Benjamin Jones, identical twins, farm "The Vision," a property in the Welsh Borders, with the green fields of England on one side and the black hills of Wales on the other. Here they were born in 1900, and here for eighty years they share one life- eat the same food, sleep in the same bed, swing an axe in the same trajectory. On the Black Hill is the haunting story of their intertwined double drama- and of how they sense the salvation that is theirs in the "abiding city on the hill." " (from front flap) The acclaimed third work published during the lifetime of Bruce Chatwin (1940-1989), the popular & award-winning British travel writer & novelist who died tragically of AIDS at the age of only 48. This indeed haunting, probing novel about twin brother farmers at the border between England & Wales, & their relationship with their mother as well as each other, was the basis for a film version directed by Andrew Grieve (1987). Hardcover in clipped (but therefore certainly first-issue with "01142083" printed on front flap) dust jacket, first American edition preceded by the first UK edition published the previous year (1982, see our item No. 4663). An essential, classic Chatwin collectible in its penultimately rarest form. Book in very fine condition with only a bit of rubbing & faint scratching to front, back cover boards (black cloth spine & silver-gilt lettering thereon mint & bright); very slight wear & fading at thin edges & corners of same; moderate spotting to upper edge of text block; less at lower edge & none at side edge of same. Interior very fine with only light browning & occasional spotting to blank paste-downs & endpapers; all other page leaves substantially mint. Dust jacket fine with light rubbing, a touch of browning & sparse spotting to front, back covers, spine & flaps; very slight wear & some tiny bumps, creases at thin edges & corners of same. Very Fine / Fine. [Item #4710]

Price: $100.00