The Breed of Basil
New York: McBride, 1930. Hardcover. First edition, 1930, Pittsburgh author's first book. Cloth in dust jacket, book about fine, jacket VG with light toning and soil, 2-inch tear at top left of front panel neatly repaired. Bell was the author of Out of this Furnace (1941), the best labor novel to emerge from the Pittsburgh mill experience. Born Thomas Belecjak, he grew up in Braddock, PA, the son of a steel worker and bartender, and gained experience by working in the mills, machine shops, etc. This novel, a romance set in a vaguely medieval time, is just the sort that some author -- was it Hemingway? -- had in mind when advising young authors to throw their first novels overboard and go on to the second novel. Near Fine / very good. Item #H4887
Price: $200.00