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ALVERDES (Paul)
The Whistlers' Room.
Translated from the German by Basil Creighton. [viii]+79pp. Privately Printed for the Friends of Alexander Woollcott. Christmas
1931
#70314
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![[HLMainPic]](booksThumbs/70314.jpg "Click on the left or right of the image for more images")
This German novel, "half comedy, half tragedy" in the opinion of Cyril Falls (who gave it a rare three star endorsement), concerns three German & one English soldier, all with bullet wounds in their throats, confined together for treatment. This is a very unusual edition of 75 copies (of which this is no. 52) designed by Frederic Warde for Alexander Woollcott (1887-1943, New York journalist/critic/raconteur & 'personality'- a sort of vitriolic, waspish, American Oscar Wilde). In the Great War he served with the AEF in Europe where he was plucked out of the medical corps & appointed chief reporter for the services magazine 'Stars & Stripes.' He was very well connected, counting the Marx Brothers & Dorothy Parker among his intimates. At Christmas 1931 he organised this edition of Alverdes' short classic as a Christmas gift to 75 friends, each with printed ex-libris leaf for the recipient, this copy having been given to fellow New Yorker to Robert Barnes Rudd (1887-1971, professor of English at Hamilton College, NY, from 1917-1958). Orig. patterned cloth, gilt title label to sp.,
£75
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