INSCRIBED ASSOCIATION COPY
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Macmillan, 1961.
First edition. An intimate presentation copy, inscribed by Spark for her editor, "For Rachel Mackenzie with love from Muriel". Publisher's green cloth with gilt lettering on the spine, in the pictorial dustwrapper by Victor Reinganum. A fine copy in a very good dustwrapper.
An exceptional association copy of Spark's sixth and best known novel, inscribed to the editor who secured Spark international fame. Rachel Mackenzie was Muriel Spark's editor at The New Yorker, and had been encouraging her to submit work to the magazine from the late 1950s. In August 1961, Spark sent her The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie and promptly received a telegram back from Mackenzie, "I love this book". Mackenzie dedicated the entirety of October 14th 1961 issue to publishing the novel, and Spark was the first British woman to receive this accolade. Its success in The New Yorker transformed her:
"Suddenly, from having cult status and modest American sales, she had 430,000 readers and the imprimatur of the flossiest arbiter of American literary taste" (Stannard).
PROVENANCE: Rachel Mackenzie (1909-1980), editor at The New Yorker.
Stock ID: 43583
£4,500.00
