George Psychoundakis: A Letter to C.A. Trypanis: Signed And Doodled By The Author In The Year Of Publication by Fermor, Patrick Leigh - 1999: Very Scarce Presentation Copy

The sole printing published by The American College Of Greece, Athens in 1999. One of 300 copies hardbound in boards by Ch. Lengas. Typography and design by Matthew Jennett. There were also 940 copies sewn into wrappers. The BOOK is in Very Good++ condition. Light fading to the spine and inner board edges. Spine ends mildly bumped. A small previous owner's name has been neatly tipped out to the verso of the half-title page (see image). The book is protected in a loose Mylar archival cover. The book has been Signed and Doodled by the Author to the front blank end-paper: 'To Janetta and Jaime, with tons of love, from Paddy, Kardamyli, 5. X11. 1999'. The recipients were Janetta Parlade and her husband. Parlade was a literary socialite and veteran of the Bloomsbury set. Kardamyli in Greece, was the home of Leigh Fermor. The text of a letter addressed to Oxford professor Constantine Trypanis (in English and Greek) about the contemporary Cretan poet and resistance hero George Psychoundakis who translated both the Illiad and The Odyssey into his local Cretan Dialect. Psychoundakis was also the author of 'The Cretan runner', a memoir of the Cretan occupation which Leigh Fermor had translated and provided the introduction. Very scarce with such attributes. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.