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This Festive Season (Only Signed, Only Book) by Jeanne Singer

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Original price was: $110.00.Current price is: $66.00.

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Language : English
Format : Hardcover
Country/Region of Manufacture : United States

Harcourt, Brace And Company, New York, 1943. Hardcover. Stated First Edition. Signed and inscribed by the author on the first front end paper. The inscription reads ‘With Best wishes to Uncle Si (?), Affectionately, Jeanne, Dec 17, 1943.’ I looked at all the different book websites and can say with confidence that this will be the Only signed copy of this book for sale anywhere on the Internet. Actually that statement is a little tongue-in-cheek because, once listed, it will not just be the Only signed copy for sale, it will be the Only copy of the book, signed or unsigned, for sale on the Internet. It was also the author’s first novel. And it is a serious novel no doubt inspired in part by the events of the time it was written (take a look at the quoted review below). This novel was reviewed by the New Yorker in its October 30, 1943 issue. There was also a review from the New Republic on November 22, 1943. That review was titled Fiction Against Fascism. I don’t have access to the actual reviews. However here is something from the Kirkus Review: ‘Into a brief span of time, compassed by two days, is packed emotional tensions, grown out of racial concepts, with the story implicit, rather than developed. There are three main characters: Sturtevant, a liberal University professor, irresolute in taking a stand for his beliefs until they are challenged by prejudice against his ex-pupil and friend, Robert Silver, a Jew to whom an appointment has just been denied. The third is Lisa Hoffman, refugee and governess to the nieces and nephews of Robert Silver. The shock of discovering that anti-semitism is not confined to Nazi Germany brings anguish to her, and to Sturtevant the realization that he must make unprejudiced people unite with him in action. The perceptive characterizations, the skilled projection of the background of the Seder celebration in an orthodox Jewish household on West End Avenue, New York, the challenge of ideas combine to make this an interesting first novel, a novel of ideas rather than action.’

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