The Happy Island. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, (1938).
First Edition. Robert Graves dustjacket art. Extremely scarce Powell title. "Prudence Bly, the night club queen, came from Silver City to take New York by the throat - and did. But Jefferson Abbott, a confident young playwright from her home town, appeared and Prudence fell in love. Then began the struggle between reality and the siren call of glamour". A contemporary New York Times review states: "There are night-club singers, radio artists, playwrights, musicians. There are dilettantes and professional beauties. There are silly little bourgeois couples, clutching feverishly at the coat tails of these luminaries. Gyrating aimlessly from bar to bar, from night club to night club, from one lush party to another, these characters of Miss Powell's have a certain featureless vitality. As they gossip and backbite, betraying one another's secrets and stealing one another's loves, they hold one half mesmerized by their extremities of caddishness. Somehow or other, however, Miss Powell's material has betrayed her. One is left with a covert suspicion that it was hardly worth her time." Very Good, rental price in ink at top front endpaper, ink stain at top page edge, in dustjacket with unfortunate 1 1/2 inch piece lacking at upper mid spine, some shallow chipping and wear at edges.
Price: $1,250.00