Ida.
Stein, Gertrude. Ida. A Novel. New York: Random House, (1941).
8vo.; endpapers offset; fore-edge lightly foxed; mint green cloth, stamped in black and gilt; lightly foxed; blue, white, and black dust-jacket; spine and lower panel lightly browned; gentle edgewear.
First edition of one of Stein’s less well-received novels; 2000 copies, the entire edition. Wilson A36a. Not since Lucy Church Amiably, published in 1930, had Stein written a novel, and Ida marked her return to the genre. When Ida was published, critics were disappointed that Stein’s literary innovation had resulted in a novel seemingly unremarkable in every way, rendering it virtually unreadable. “Stein has succeeded in solving the most difficult problem in prose composition,” The New Yorker review declared, “to write something that will not arrest the attention in any way, manner, shape, or form” (http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid= 19038).
In a note on the upper flap of the dust-jacket, Random House editor Bennett Cerf affectionately remarks that Ida is being “presented faithfully to you by a publisher who rarely has the faintest idea of what Miss Stein is talking about, but who admires her from the bottom of his heart for her courage and for her abandoning love of humanity and freedom.”
(#7176)
Print Inquire
