AN IMPOSSIBLE WOMAN. The Memories of Dottoressa Moor of Capri.
[inscribed by Greene] London | Sydney | Toronto: The Bodley Head, (1975). Original navy blue paper-covered boards, with dust jacket.
First Edition of this volume of "memories" of Elisabeth Moor (1885-1975), who in 1926 arrived with two children on the Isle of Capri, to practice as a doctor for the next forty years. She came to know Norman Douglas and Compton Mackenzie as well as her neighbor Graham Greene -- who years later suggested that she write this as therapy to re-group from World War I. (For over forty years Greene owned a small house on Capri, visiting generally for a month twice a year.) The volume is in fine condition; the jacket is near-fine, with the red spine lettering faded.
The front free endpaper is inscribed, in Greene's distinctive hand, "For Max | with love from | Graham | Bepton Aug. '75." Max Reinhardt was Greene's publisher (owner of the Bodley Head Press). In Bepton, West Sussex, Reinhardt owned a converted gardener's cottage on the grounds of Ione O'Brien's Park House Hotel; he would spend time there while also putting up Graham Greene in a room at the hotel that was furnished only "with a hard chair and a plain table" -- where Greene could work and socialize with Reinhardt's family (see Adamson: Max Reinhardt, p. 123). Item #14643
Price: $675.00