Osborne, Frances (Sackville, Idina)

The Bolter

ISBN: 9780307270146
New York, NY, USA: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. First Edition. Hardcover. "She was irresistible. She inspired fiction, fantasy, legend, and art. Some say she was "the Bolter" of Nancy Mitford's novel The Pursuit of Love. She "played" Iris Storm in Michael Arlen's celebrated novel about fashionable London's lost generation, The Green Hat, and Greta Garbo played her in A Woman of Affairs, the movie made from Arlen's book. She was painted by (William) Orpen; photographed by (Cecil) Beaton; she was the model for (Edward) Molyneaux's slinky wraparound dresses that became the look of the age- the Jazz Age. Though not conventionally beautiful...Idina Sackville dazzled men and women alike, and made a habit of marrying whenever she fell in love- five husbands in all and lovers without number. Hers was the age of bolters, and Idina was the most celebrated of them all." (from front flap) A biography of the life & times of (Lady Myra) Idina Sackville (1893-1955), the legendary free-spirited British aristocrat who was at the center of the decadent “Happy Valley Set" in then-British Colonial Kenya during the 1920s-1940s, by the popular British biographer & novelist Frances (Victoria) Osborne- who is Sackville's great-granddaughter. This group of dissolute hedonists was immortalized in the film White Mischief (1987, a much-quotable favorite of mine), loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by James Fox (1982), in which Jacqueline Pearce portrays the character "Idina Soltau," based on Sackville. Hardcover in unclipped, apparently first-issue dust jacket (with $30 price printed at front flap, "6/2009" at rear flap), first edition, "Published June 3, 2009/ Second Printing, June 2009" as stated at copyright page. With captioned historical photographs throughout. From the collection of Barbara (1935-2023) & Irving (1933-2018) Nusbaum- world travellers, connoisseurs, eminent collectors of art & books- the dearly beloved parents of this grieving writer. A juicy, delightful "guilty pleasure" of a volume, in its penultimately rarest contemporary form from the same month as the first printing, & with distinguished provenance. Book in very fine condition with only a hint of wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of front, back covers & spine; otherwise substantially mint inside & out. Dust jacket very fine with only a bit of rubbing to front, back covers & spine; some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same & flaps; miniscule area with loss of surface color at lower right corner of front cover/flap. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #6571]

Price: $30.00