Miller, Henry

The Colossus of Maroussi

San Francisco, CA: Colt Press, 1941. First Trade Edition. Hardcover. "This magnificent book about Greece is written by one of the finest and most astonishing writers of our time. Henry Miller, author of The Tropic of Cancer and The Tropic of Capricorn, is a New Yorker who has long lived in Paris. Today this great figure, following in the truly American tradition of (Walt) Whitman and (Thomas) Wolfe, is recognized by critics at home and abroad as one of the prose masters of the modern age. Having just completed a harrowing voyage from Greece, Miller is currently traveling through the West, writing a book on America. He has just published a critique of Hamlet written with Michael Fraenkel; and New Directions will issue a volume of his essays, The Wisdom of the Heart, this Fall. Miller's medium is the strong, free personal narrative, and his faith is the reality of people and of living." (front flap) The adventurous, exciting & insightful World War II-period travelogue-memoir by Henry Miller (1891-1980), the great American author & artist whose earlier works influenced & were a precursor/inspiration to the Beat Generation- including this work, with its proto-Kerouacian atmosphere of daring & restless travel. Quoting rear jacket cover, this work "...is perhaps the finest and most joyous book ever written about the people and the land of Greece. It is a stirring contemporary account of the great spirit of a nation, which, at the very time of writing, was heroically resisting the forces of Fascism. Here one of America's most distinguished writers distills into warm discursive prose the living magnificence of this ancient land." Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first trade edition, first printing (though not specified as such at sparse copyright page) with all points in Shifreen & Jackson, A26(b), pg. 133. For that matter, this volume has all but three points in the first limited edition per S&J A26(a), pgs.132-133: A floral cloth binding without dust jacket rather than a blue cloth binding with dust jacket (incl. $3.50 price, rather than $6 price indicated for limited edition) printed at rear cover as here; all text block edges trimmed rather than side-edge untrimmed as here, & Miller's signature on third blank leaf, not present here. From the collection of Dr. Stanley Hurwick Levy (1926-2020), an esteemed American physician who met & conferred with Albert Einstein while a student prodigy at Princeton University during the 1940s, & was among the most legendarily prolific book collectors of them all, over many years- as this writer can attest to, having had the privilege of attending a presentation/tour conducted by Dr. Levy at his home here in Michigan some years ago, where I was most-impressed with his vast collection. See also our item No.s 6346, 5959, 5999, 6151- collectible editions of some of the works mentioned in the flap copy quoted above. An essential Miller collectible in its penultimately rarest contemporary form, with distinguished provenance. Book in relatively quite near-fine-verging-on-fine condition with mild rubbing, browning & a touch of fading to front, back covers & spine; very slight wear, mild browning, fading & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; slight browning of title/author slip affixed to spine (possibly off-white color rather than browning, & with all letters, graphics, edges & corners near-pristine & intact); mild-to-moderate rubbing, browning to edges of text block esp. upper edge. Interior near-fine-to-fine with mild-to-moderate browning to blank paste-downs, endpapers & page leaves (the latter chiefly at blank margins/edges); previous owner's (likely contemporary) signature in black fountain-pen ink at recto of first front endpaper; series of (presumably) page numbers in pencil at rear paste-down near upper left edge/corner (which we have retained as possibly useful to the collector but can be easily removed). Dust jacket (again relatively) fair-to-good with moderate-to-significant rubbing, browning, spot-staining & mild scratching to front, back covers, spine & flaps; minor-to-significant wear at edges & corners of same incl. chips & partially closed tears esp. at upper edges/corners with some loss of paper. Near Fine- Fine / Fair- Good. [Item #6421]

Price: $350.00