Four Saints in Three Acts: An Opera to Be Sung.
New York: Random House, 1934. Hardcover. Introduction by Carl Van Vechten. 8vo. Black cloth with gilt spine lettering, dust jacket. 57pp. Fine/very good. Jacket mildly age toned and spine rather darkened, with small chip at spine head/tail. Item #48564
Handsome first edition of this work for which Virgil Thomson composed the score -- considered groundbreaking in every respect including its all-black cast. Front jacket panel struggles to describe Stein's writing, finally settling politely for "strange and baffling prose cadences [that] provide a challenge to reader and publisher alike...." Front flyleaf bears contemporary (dated 29 September 1934) nonauthorial gift inscription that quotes the opera's opening line ("To know to know to love her so") and another line from the first page ("A saint is one to be for two when three and you make five and two and cover"). A superb, bright copy in far better than average jacket.
Price: $150.00