Wife of the Centaur

[solid copy, minimal shelfwear, minor age-toning to page edges; jacket has a handful of tiny closed edge-tears, minor nicks at spine extremities, a couple of faint scrape lines on front panel]. "This is the story of Jeffrey Dwyer, a Yale man and a poet, sensitive and ardent beneath the layers of sophistication; of Inez Martin, a vivid young beauty taking her laughing way through a crowd of adorers of whom Jeffrey was the most importunate; and of little Joan Converse who gave her heart, unasked, to this same Jeffrey and watched with hot eyes and a bitter spirit as he humbled his proud head once and again before the careless mockery of the girl he loved." Oh, brother. The author's first book -- at age 23, he legitimized the publisher's claim that this was "a story of the young generation written by one of them" -- it was picked up by the movies for a reported $25,000, apparently a record at the time. The silent film version (now lost) was directed by King Vidor in 1924, with John Gilbert, Aileen Pringle and Eleanor Boardman (subsequently Mrs. Vidor) playing Jeffrey, Inez and Joan, respectively. Hume turned out a half-dozen or so more novels in the 1920s and early 1930s, but found his true calling as a screen (and later TV) writer, whose credits included several Tarzan movies and (in what seems to me like a weirdly ironic twist) the 1949 adaptation of Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." Need I add that Hume was a Yale man and a poet, himself (Although it's not known whether he was sensitive and ardent beneath layers of sophistication, it was noted in his NYTimes obituary that "he wore round eyeglasses, a mustache and bow ties," so draw your own conclusions.)

Product Info

Publisher: George H. Doran Company

Year: (c.1923)

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

Seller Info

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Country: United States