Zweig, Stephan (Ferlinghetti, Lawrence)

Vingt-Quatre Heures de la Vie d'une Femme

Lausanne, Switzerland: La Petite Ourse, 1960. First Edition Thus. Softcover. A French-language edition of noted Austrian author, Stephan Zweig’s (1881-1942) 1927 novella, Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman, translated by Alzir Hella and Olivier Bournac who also provide an introduction. While Zweig is far from a household name in America, during the 1920s and 1930s he was easily among the most widely-translated authors then-living. His historical studies, particularly of famous literary figures, including Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), and other inventive conceptual works (like his series of poetical miniatures, Decisive Moments in History, in which major events in history are retold in verse forms) made Zweig famous “from bridge to bridge,” as Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982) once said of Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997). A curiosity-engendering volume, to be sure. From the library of the late, great Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919–2021), founder of City Lights Books and publisher of many Beat Generation writers. This volume is further made significant by the presence of LF’s ownership initialing and location note, both of which are found along topmost fine-edge of FFEP near top right-hand corner. This initialing and the accompanying notations, in thin, black felt pen ink, reads: “f / Vaison-la-Romaine / (Provence) / 5 / 08.” A second inscription further endows the volume, — this one being the year “1960” written in the same thin, black felt pen ink as the previously-detailed initialing and inscription was. Per colophon (as translated from the French by this writer): “This volume, the thirty-ninth in the collection was printed on the presses of Imprimeries Populaires in Lausanne. […] The print run includes 8,000 copies numbered from I to 8,000,” notes a portion of the lengthy colophon nested at the back of this book. This volume is no. 6,687,” as perusers of this listing will note when viewing the images attached to it. With all text in French, this is another intriguing foreign language edition from great American poet’s cosmopolitan library. In Fair-Good condition with only moderate-to-enunciated shelf-wear; some light bumping; some creasing, chipping, age-toning, closed and open tears — mostly of a minute-to-mild variety, — excepting a larger, mostly-flattened [and thus, stable] closed tear to topmost fine-edge of front cover near center-middle;; some low-impact constellations of rubbing & related wear throughout, though all generally low-impact; former bookseller’s yellow price sticker [in euros] at bottom right-hand corner of back cover; otherwise clean. Fair-Good. [Item #8219]

Price: $50.00