The Pilgrimage of Henry James

E.P. Dutton, 1925. First Edition. hardcover. Very Good/Good. 0x0x0. 1925 first edition E.P. Dutton and Co. (New York), association copy (children's author/illustrator Maurice Sendak), 5 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches tall red cloth hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, embossed gilt ruling to front cover, gilt lettering to front cover and spine, fore and bottom page edges untrimmed, 170 pp. One small pencil bibliographic notation on the blank rear free-endpaper, possibly by former owner, author/illustrator Maurice Sendak (1928-2012). Otherwise, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a slightly age-toned and edgeworn dust jacket which has a coouple of small chips and a half-inch edge tear but which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. No Sendak bookplate, but an original, signed certificate of provenance is laid in from the auction house which establishes that the book was from the personal library of Sendak, and was sold on behalf of the famed Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia. Sendak was known to be an inveterate reader of nineteenth-century authors, including Henry James. His library included a large number of volumes by and about James, including this work. ~SP08~ [1.5P] The Pilgrimage of Henry James is a study in social biography rather than in literary criticism. In spite of the delicate perceptions and the original points of view which have distinguished his work as a literary critic, Mr. Van Wyck Brooks’s real subject is the perplexing relation of letters to life in America. In his autobiography, author Brooks notes that F. Scott Fitzgerald, 'the typical writer of the twenties, wrote to me in praise of my book on Henry James and he said he knew The Ordeal of Mark Twain, also.' Maurice Bernard Sendak (1928-2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963. His 2012 New York Times obituary called Sendak 'the most important children's book artist of the 20th century.' In 1968, Sendak lent the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bulk of his work, including nearly 10,000 works of art, manuscripts, books and ephemera. Two years after his death, the Rosenbach filed an action in state probate court in Connecticut, contending that Sendak's estate had kept many rare books that the author/illustrator had pledged to the library in his will. But the judge awarded the bulk of the disputed book collection to the Sendak estate, not to the museum, and this was among the books sold at auction by The Rosenbach, with the proceeds likely going to Sendak's estate.