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Lee, Laurie : As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

Andre Deutsch, London, 1969

Jacket design by Shirley Thompson. Price-clipped dust jacket. 252p. Slightly bumped around the edges.. Illustr.: Rosoman, Leonard. Book Condition: Fine. Binding: Cloth. Jacket: Very Good

First Edition

LEE, Laurie : As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

Atheneum, 1969

ISBN 9780393022339

First American Edition. Bright red topstain. Clipped DJ in archival cover., Fine. Illustr: Leonard Rosoman

1st Edition

LEE**, LAURIE: : As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning

LONDON.ANDRE DEUTSCH,1969.

ISBN 233961178.

UK,8vo HB+protected dw/dj,1st edn. NFINE/VG++.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to protected dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated, colour pictorial design by Shirley Thompson, illustrated front panel with white lettering; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no major nicks or tears present. Dw/dj's spine/backstrip with ubiquitous and some partial,inevitable sunning/fading that this design is prone to,to the top red band of design.Due to proximity,during book's shelf-storage,the presence of a smaller book alongside,has left the exposed top edge and vertical edge of front gutter with an (approx) 10mm sunned/faded strip.Miniscule rubbing on top two corner and tiniest of closed tears/snicks at head of both gutters' folds/edges.Top edge coloured green,fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,publisher's original plain orange paper-covered boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine and clean,near immaculate plain white endpapers - faint off-set foxing from dw/dj's inner flaps excepted.Book has a very slight lean.UK,slim 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn, 13252pp [paginated] includes 11 chapters and an epilogue - all,each with a b/w line illustrated headpiece by Leonard Rosoman; plus [unpaginated] half-title,a double-page title page,a dedication,contents list/table,individual separator pages for chapters+epilogue,and 4pp blanks at the rear of the book. Described hard,but fairly and honestly - the sunned/faded spine the most noticeable detraction of the book! One morning in June,a little over a generation ago,Laurie Lee,author of 'Cider with Rosie',left his Goucestershire village and set out to walk to London. He was nineteen,and had never yet seen the sea,so he went by way of Southampton. He carried a tent,a violin and a box of treacle biscuits, and the journey took him a month. Along the way he learnt to live by playing the fiddle in the streets,and in London he worked as a builder's labourer.Then,on being sacked and having all the time in the world,he decided to go to Spain although he scarcely knew where it was. To a young poet ignorance can be an advantage; as it absorbs experience with an intoxicating intensity.It is hard to think of any other writer who has recaptured this process so magically as Laurie Lee does in this book. He walked from Vigo to the Mediterranean, sleeping in fields,olive groves and the courtyards of inns,and playing his fiddle in streets and cafes.He saw a country still caught in the grip of mediaevalism,and a people who were at first an exotic spectacle for his pleasure but who became as real as himself. But it was 1935,and these people were on the edge of a sinister experience.By the time Laurie Lee holed up for the winter in a village by the sea,the country was split and the Civil War was imminent; and when it broke out a few months late he had become a sharer rather than a detached observer. One small place,inhabited by a few peasants and fishermen: 'Castillo' adds only a marginal note to history,but it is the eye and the mind of the man making that note which counts,and Laurie Lee's story tells more of the truth than many a more panoramic account,and tells it unforgettably.It is a great good fortune that this particular writer happened to be in that particular place at that time. The adventure ended in a way too surprising and comic to be divulged in advance,but Laurie Lee does not finish his book there.He concludes with what may be called a coda in which the significance of the story as a whole is confirmed: an artistically perfect ending to a perfect book. Please contact seller,because of the weight/value of this item for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included or FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

UK,8vo HB+protected dw/dj, 1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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