KATHERINE ANNE PORTER’S FRENCH SONG-BOOK, SIGNED BY HER AND INSCRIBED BY GLENWAY WESCOTT

PORTER, Katherine Anne. French Song-Book. New York: Harrison of Paris, 1933. Large octavo, original half maroon cloth, blue paper boards, red-printed cream dust jacket, top edge gilt, uncut and partially unopened. $750.

Signed limited first edition, number 255 of 595 copies signed by Porter. This copy additionally inscribed on the limitation notice by poet Glenway Wescott to his neighbor, the Saturday Evening Post editor Roul Tunley.

Porter’s French Song-Book consists of 17 French songs from a period spanning 600 years, all translated by Porter. “A French Song-Book, certain to appeal to typophiles and bibliophiles, combines poetry and printing as well as music in a pleasing and complementary harmony… She was able to preserve the original rhythms (the French originals appear nearby)” (Ford, 341-42). Ransom, Harrison 12. Wescott’s longtime companion, Monroe Wheeler, the future Director of Exhibitions and Publications at the Museum of Modern Art, was the co-creator of the fine press Harrison of Paris, and the designer of this book.

Book fine, original dust jacket lightly chipped at edges. An extremely good signed copy.