Instant Lives
New York: Saturday Review Press, 1974. Edward Gorey. First printing. Hardcover.
Near Fine book block and case in a Very Good, price clipped jacket. The jacket shows some soiling. First printing. A gift inscribed bookmark is laid in. Black and white illustrations. 84 pages. 6” x 9.5”.
Poetry editor at The New Yorker at the time, Howard Moss’ (1922–1987) Instant Lives satirizes, in 34 brief essays, the lives of artistic greats like Jane Austen, Beethoven, Emily Dickinson, Paul Gauguin, James Joyce, Gustav Mahler, Anna Pavlova, Sappho, and Jan Van Eyck, to name a few. Says the flap, “All of them are the sort of half-informed, half-baked notions an inattentive student might carry through life, having listened with half an ear to a not-very-inspiring lecturer.”
Some essays previously appeared in magazines from 1972–1974.
Charmingly illustrated by Edward Gorey (1925–2000).
Price: $45.00