The Shadowy Third and Other Stories (First Edition)

Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1923. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 8vo. Elenore Plaisted Abbott (frontispiece). While this Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist published twenty novels, poetry and literary criticism over her four decades of work, this is the only collection of short stories, (seven in all), that American author, Ellen Glasgow, published during her lifetime. The first four stories are often categorized as ghost stories, while the other three are, respectively, a mystery, an illumination of the grapplings of twentieth century wives who were confronted with their husbands' infidelity, and the last, often connected to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" where a physician-narrator allows readers to determine the source of Alan Jordan's death in "Jordan's End". (Wikipedia). Bound in a deep burgundy-brown cloth, the cover is embossed in gilt lettering and surrounded by a gilt border. The spine is also lettered in gilt. Red and black title page. Frontispiece is a color plate of mother and child with the caption reading "I saw her lift her little arms, and I saw the mother stoop and gather her to her bosom". The seven stories include: "The Shadowy Third", "Dare's Gift", "The Past", "Whispering Leaves", "A Point in Morals", "The Difference", and "Jordan's End". 291 pp. Dust jacket is a grayish slightly textured paper lettered in black and red, protected by a mylar cover. <br><br>CONDITION: This very good book shows light external wear with slightly fading gilt. Lightly bumped corners at the head. Front inner hinge is starting, yet both boards are well attached and the binding is sound. Mild continuous depression at the head through textblock. Unmarked except for a previous owner's name on the front pastedown dated 1925. Dust jacket is good with some splitting at the seams and some material removed at the head and foot of the spine and back edge. A vintage label is tipped in reading "From the Gimble Bookstore Philadelphia" on the back pastedown. A lovely, very readable copy. Full refund if not satisfied.