Kings Jazz and David (Jazz et David, Rois)

by SCHWERKE, Irving

$250 · Offered by Biblio

First edition · Signed

Paris: Les Presses Modernes (for the author), 1927. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Small square octavo, 259pp. A crisp, clean copy, near fine, in contemporary red marbled boards with red morocco spine, titled in gilt. The cheap, acidic interwar European paper is inevitably age-toned. One of a large and unstated number of copies SIGNED by Schwerke on the limitation page, this being number 4,800. This copy additionally INSCRIBED by Schwerke on the opposite leaf in French: "Pour mes chers amis Helen et Fred - en souvenir de tant de bonnes heures passees dans leur compagnie--Irving. 5 IV 60 Appleton, Wis." ["For my good friends Helen and Fred - in memory of so many happy hours spent in their company."] We could not identify the Leonards, though their lightly penciled address in Orlando, Florida appears on the previous leaf. Schwerke was born and died in Appleton, but in the meantime spent many years in Paris and other European cities as a jazz critic and music writer. His obituary notes that he was acquainted with Hemingway and Fitzgerald and other bright stars of 1920s Paris.

  • Publisher: Les Presses Modernes (for the author)
  • Year: 1927
  • Edition: First Edition
  • Binding: hardcover

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