SAY NOTHING

First edition, first printing. Alan Ross's copy. Original red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the Stein illustrated dustwrapper. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt sharp. The contents are clean throughout, the page block without the spotting or toning common to this title. In the dustwrapper, a little toned to the spine and lightly soiled to the rear panel, which also has a short closed tear (c. 0.5 cm) to the upper edge (neatly sealed from the reverse with a small piece of tape) and small nick to lower edge. Not price-clipped (16s. to the front flap). An attractive association copy.

Alan Ross's ownership inscription written in blue ink to the front free endpaper. Ross, writer, editor and publisher, corresponded with Hanley during the 1970s and 80s (the letters now held by the University of Leeds) and in 1997 provided an introduction to a Harvill Press reissue of Hanley's book of stories, 'The Last Voyage'. Something of a writer's writer, Hanley was admired and supported by, among others, E. M. Forster, T. E. Lawrence, George Orwell, Henry Green, and William Faulkner, who described him as "a chronicler of nomads and potential escapees, a writer who travelled the spaces of sea and consciousness".