CAPOTE TRUMAN A Tree of Night

Sale 2114 - Lot 309

Unsold

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

IMPORTANT EARLY ASSOCIATION COPY CAPOTE, TRUMAN. A Tree of Night. 8vo, original black cloth, circular and a few other faint dampstains to covers, spine, and fore-edge; dust jacket, edgeworn, split forming along front fold. New York, (1949)

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Additional Details

first edition of author's second book. presentation inscription by capote to friend and editor george davis: "For George with Truman's very special love Feb 1949." As Capote sailed for Europe on February 26th, two days before publication, the inscription doubtless precedes publication. Davis "discovered" Capote in 1945 and first published three of the stories appearing in this work during his editorship at Mademoiselle. He was the second husband of Lotte Lenya, to whose estate this volume once belonged. Prior to his marriage he was part of the famous colony of artists who called 7 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights their home in 1940-41. The group included Auden, Britten, Paul and Jane Bowles, Gypsy Rose Lee, Carson McCullers and Langston Hughes. Several years later, Capote would base the wicked character Turner Boatwright in Answered Prayers on Davis. Very few early inscribed copies exist, and only one (to his agent, Marian Ives) dated in the month of publication.