BETHEL MERRIDAY
New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1940. First Edition. Hardcover. "A Novel of the Young Girl on the Stage." Dustwrapper art by John Falls. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the dedicatee on the dedication page: "To Gordon Harris/But for whom this/dedication may never/have occurred./Cornelius H. Traeger/N.Y.C. July 12, 1940." Also INSCRIBED and SIGNED by Lewis on the front endpaper: "To Gordon Harris/from another victim/of the deadly/Traeger habit/Sinclair Lewis/N.Y./June 22, 1940." From a book review in the 7 February 1949 issue of TIME Magazine: "On a June day in 1947, Manhattan Physician Cornelius Traeger suddenly took leave of his host, Sinclair Lewis, to visit a patient: 'I have a feeling that Johnny Gunther will die this weekend.' Johnny did die, of a brain tumor that more than a dozen doctors had fought unsuccessfully for 15 months. Johnny was only 17, a tall, good-looking, skinny kid who had graduated from Deerfield Academy and planned to enter Harvard that fall." Johnny Gunther, of course, was the subject of DEATH BE NOT PROUD, the best-selling book by his father, John Gunther, and the subject of this review. Browning to endpapers with no significant effect on Lewis's inscription; cloth spine sunned. Very Good in a Very Good dustwrapper with staining along the edges from the removal of a previous jacket protector. Item #020395
Price: $1,500.00