Youth and the Bright Medusa

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, (1920).

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Hardcover. First edition, limited issue. All edges untrimmed. Hinges professionally restored, cloth a bit soiled, an about very good copy without dustwrapper. Signed by Cather on the front fly. Also included is a 1937 letter to a collector from the Argus Book Shop revealing this is one of the highly limited issue of 25 copies. Joan Crane, in her book, *Willa Cather: A Bibliography*, confirms this, changing the number slightly, under her entry A10.a.1: "Thirty-five copies of the first edition, first printing were bound with untrimmed top edge and signed on the front open endpaper recto by Willa Cather. These copies are 8mm. taller than the trade issue." Both book and letter are housed in an elaborate custom chemise and quarter morocco slipcase. Exceptionally scarce.

Item #320325

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Item #320325 Youth and the Bright Medusa. Willa CATHER.
Youth and the Bright Medusa

Willa Cather
birth name: Willa Sibert Cather
born: 12/7/1873
died: 4/24/1947
nationality: USA

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Biography

American novelist noted for her portrayals of frontier life on the American plains. - Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literaturemore

Collecting tips:

All of the earliest of Cather's books are rare in dustjackets, and commensurately expensive. Especially prized are O Pioneers!, (1913 - with "Willa S. Cather" on the spine, later printings dropped the "S."), The Song of the Lark. (1915 - first issue lists three other titles by Cather on the copyright page), and My Antonia, (1918 - first state has illustrations on coated paper). One quirky book to look out for, supposedly edited by her, but actually largely written by Cather was The Life of Mary G. Baker Eddy and The History of Christian Science by Georgine Milmine (1909) is not usually so expensive, but of course, isn't so interesting as her fiction, either.

We also offer a comprehensive Willa Cather Bibliography and Price Guide.more