The Sandcastle by Iris Murdoch - 1957

London: Chatto and Windus, 1957 Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. pp 318 A first edition of Iris Murdoch's third novel, formerly owned by the author's close friends and literary collaborators Jacquetta Hawkes and J B Priestley. The book is in very good condition with an unmarked text and a little spine lean. The jacket is in near very good condition rubbed and lightly nicked to the edges. The book has no mark of its distinguished provenance but was acquired and read by Jacquetta Hawkes and J B Priestley probably on first publication, possibly a gift from the author but if so then without inscription, and has passed by descent through their family until now. Iris Murdoch liked and admired the Priestleys very much, having first met J B Priestley on a television programme in the 1950s. Describing him to another literary Yorkshireman, John Braine, for his biography she said 'What a man, what a character, what an appetite for life! And I adored Jacquetta too - I'd never before met anyone so beautiful and regal. They really are king and queen figures! Yet Jack is also Falstaff'' Priestley adapted her play A Severed Head so successfully that it ran for two years in the West End. Please contact Christian White at Modernfirsteditions if you would like more information about this book..