Between the Covers

Unbound. Autograph Postcard Signed to David McDowell of New Directions. Postmarked 29 November 1949 from Santa Monica providing a blurb for the American edition of Elio Vittorini's *In Sicily* (which was not used on the first American edition). Fine. Good content, in full: "Dear Mr. McDowell, Thank you so much for sending me the books. I greatly enjoyed both of them. Laughlin says you'd like a 'quote' on 'In Sicily' - so here's one: Elio Vittorini is certainly one of the best writers of his generation in Europe. Sincerely Christopher Isherwood." McDowell had a long and distinguished career in American publishing, working at New Directions, Random House, and Crown. For a short period in the late 1950s he and Ivan Obolensky published under their own imprint, most famously issuing the Pulitzer Prize-winning posthumous novel by his good friend James Agee, *A Death in the Family*.

Item #282246