Beyond Desire, A Novel Based On The Life Of Felix And Cecile Mendelssohn (H.N. Swanson Copy)

Random House, New York, 1955; First Edition; 8vo, 404 pages; red cloth; silver spine titles. Second American novel by author Pierre La Mure, who left France at the close of WWII and moved to Beverly Hills, California determined to write in English. His first English language novel, the resoundingly successful "Moulin Rouge," was made into the 1952 film of the same name, produced and directed by John Huston. Former copy of legendary literary agent H.N. Swanson, with his name and Hollywood agency stamp in the lower blank margin of the front prelims. In 1931 Swanson, a writer and editor in Chicago, moved to Hollywood to open an agency on Sunset Boulevard specializing in the sale of motion picture rights, over time building a formidable stable of high profile clients. In 1939 alone he reportedly handled 80 of the 110 writers working for Twentieth Century Fox, and at one time or another represented F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Paul Gallico, MacKinlay Kantor, Pearl Buck, Raymond Chandler, John O’Hara, Paul Theroux, Joyce Carol Oates, Phillip Wylie, Cornell Woolrich, and others. Very Good Plus, in a Very Good Plus dust jacket with moderate sunning of the spine panel. Not price-clipped, no chips or tears. Small tape ghost on each of the front and rear pastedowns. A crisp and bright copy.