VIRGIL THOMPSON

First edition, first printing. With autograph letter from the author loosely laid in. Publisher's original black cloth with gilt titles to the spine and upper board and a gilt musical instrument design to the upper board. Top edge yellow. Illustrated with black and white photographs. A better than very good copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth very lightly rubbed. The contents are clean and bright throughout and free of stamps and inscriptions. No dustwrapper.

A typed 1949 letter with a hand written signature and correction from Thompson to a close friend, addressed "Cher amis", in reply to congratulations, very likely for his receipt of the 1949 Pullitzer Prize for music, is loosely laid in. Virgil Thomson was an American classical composer who was a prominent figure in French and American Modernist artistic circles, and enjoyed a very long, close friendship with Gertrude Stein. This title is his autobiography. Provenance: from the library of Martin Stone.