Abide With Me

(price-clipped) [a bit of staining to the rear cover and at the top right corner of the front cover, one-time owner's fancy "ex-libris" stamp on front endpaper, vintage bookseller's label (Levinson's, Sacramento) on rear pastedown; the jacket is edgeworn/rubbed/lightly soiled, with a bit of paper loss at spine ends, pink title lettering on gray spine faded almost to the point of unreadability]. An epic satire of the American funeral industry. Published, oddly enough, in the same year as Evelyn Waugh's "The Loved One," it's remained undeservedly in the shadow of that more notorious work. Belfrage (also a Brit, though politically about as far to the left of Waugh as possible) tells the saga of the Hope Family, an undertaking dynasty, founders of "the first combined mortuary and cemetery in that section of the United States," The Vale of Hope, ultimately franchised nationwide as The Vales Inc. A funny, caustic book -- and in this bookseller's opinion, an overlooked minor classic.

Product Info

Publisher: William Sloane Associates

Year: (c.1948)

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Seller Info

ReadInk

Address: 2261 West 21st St. Los Angeles, California

Website: https://www.readinkbooks.com

Country: United States