The Gallery.
New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, (1947). First edition. Presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper by Burns to his literary agent, Helen Strauss: “For Helen Strauss the best literary agent in the world. Without her understanding this just wouldn’t have been possible. Affectionately, John Horne Burns, New York, 14 July 1947”. A gracious inscription to his literary agent, who had tried desperately to find a publisher for The Gallery. However, as David Margolick put it in his biography of Burns, “Somewhere between a dozen and a dozen and a half publishers ultimately rejected The Gallery . . . Even Helen Strauss, the hard–boiled New York literary agent Burns had hired in late September [1946], couldn’t pull off a sale.” As it happened, Burns found a publisher through the casual intercession of his friend Beulah Hagen, the assistant to Cass Canfield, the President of Harper and Brothers. Hagen mentioned the book to Frank MacGregor, one of Harper’s editors, who recommended the book to Canfield. “‘I said I had this book that was quite fascinating, but it was about war and war conditions. And I described the manuscript, I guess enthusiastically, and I said, “Well, what do I do with it, Cass?’ And he said, “You publish it, of course.’ Within two weeks Harders had accepted it. Three publishers – Vanguard, Viking, and Harpers – eventually vied for the book. Harpers won out, partly because, convinced it had a major new talent on its hands, it promised to buy Burns’s next two novels as well.” – David Margolick, Dreadful. The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns. (N.Y.: Other Press, 2013), pp. 196–197. In his introduction to the NYRB reissue of The Gallery, Paul Fussell writes: “The Gallery is an extraordinary contribution to American literature. Its structure is inventive and its prose is memorably energetic. There is nothing like it, and it thoroughly deserved the praise lavished on it in 1947, when it was one of the earliest works of fiction generated by the war just concluded. Over the years readers as varied as Edmund Wilson, Norman Mailer, and Gore Vidal have found themselves excited by this book, one which is undeniably an oddity produced by an undeniably odd author motivated by rare moral convictions.” – Introduction to The Gallery (N. Y.: NYRB, 2004), p. vii. Signed or inscribed copies of The Gallery are rare. A fine copy in lightly worn dust jacket. 8vo, original cloth, dust jacket.
Price: $2,500.00