Jean Stafford — Bad Characters

New York, Farrar, Straus and Company, 1964 . First edition. Cloth. The first edition of this anthology of short stories from Pulitzer Prize winning American author Jean Stafford. The first edition, first impression of this work from American novelist and short story writer Jean Stafford. In the brightly illustrated publisher's original price unclipped dust wrapper.This work contains nine short stories from Stafford, alongside a novella, and displays 'the wit, sensibility and psychological penetration' common to the author's work.Stafford won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for 'The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford' in 1970. From the library of Audrey Pleydell-Bouverie, an extravagant socialite and renowned beauty of the Edwardian period. Impeccably connected, Pleydell-Bouverie was also the illegitimate granddaughter of King Edward VII, and rumoured to be a lover of King Edward VIII. A sparkling figure of fashionable society, her friends included Nancy Mitford, Coco Chanel, Winston Churchill, and Fred Astaire. This work is from the sale of Pleydell-Bouverie"s library at Julians Park, Hertfordshire. She purchased the home in 1940, redesigning the interior and amassing an impressive library, featuring many examples of her own bookbinding. In the publisher's original quarter cloth binding with paper covered boards, and price unclipped illustrated dust wrapper. Bumping to spine head, with very light fading to board perimeters. Dust wrapper exceptionally bright, with minor edge wear, and closed tear to head of front wrap. Internally, firmly bound. Handling marks to tail of limitation page. Pages otherwise clean and bright. Very Good Indeed . Ill.: None. Very Good Indeed/Very Good.