Greene, Graham

Travels with My Aunt

ISBN: 0670725242
New York, NY: The Viking Press, Inc., 1970. First American Edition. Hardcover. "Greeneland has been described often as a land bleak and severe. A whisky priest dies in one village, a self-hunted man lives with lepers in another. But Greeneland has its summer regions, and in the sunlight everything looks a bit different. Here Aunt Augusta travels with her black lover Wordsworth; Curran, the founder of a doggies' church; the C.I.A. man obsessed by statistics and his hippie daughter; and old Mr. Visconti, who has been wanted by Interpol for twenty years. Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, unexpectedly caught up with them, describes their activities at first with shock and bewilderment and finally with the tenderness of a fellow traveller going their way." (front flap) The highly popular novel by Graham Greene (1904-1991), the prolific & canonical British author. As noted in flap copy above, this work is unexemplary of Greene's usually deep & disturbing oeuvre, but it delighted (& still delights) readers & was the basis of the award-winning 1972 film version directed by the classic-Hollywood director George Cukor & starring Maggie Smith as Aunt Augusta Bertram. Hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket (with $5.95 price & "0170" printed on front flap), first American edition, first printing (not stated but with no reference to subsequent printings as per this publisher's custom), preceded the previous year (1969) by the first UK edition. An essential & most enriching Greene collectible in one of its rarest original forms. Book in fine condition with very slight rubbing & occasional spotting to front, back covers & spine (with purple & gilt lettering, design on spine almost completely bright & intact, author's gilt initials on front board completely so); a bit of wear, fading & spotting to thin edges & corners of same; one small area of rubbing at/ near lower edge of front violet-colored paper board incl. slight fading, miniscule loss of surface; mild browning to side & lower edges of text block (both untrimmed as issued); very mild fading & a few faint scratches to violet-dyed upper edge of same. Interior very fine, substantially mint. Dust jacket fine with very slight rubbing, browning, a few short, faint scratches & occasional spotting to front, back covers, spine & flaps; a touch of wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at thin edges & corners of same. Fine / Fine. [Item #4788]

Price: $100.00