Search Results: Isak Dinesen from Berthoff Books

Random House, 1946. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Good/No Jacket. 304 pages. The author more frequently used the pen name Isak Dinesen. This is the first English (American) edition of novel - set in 19th-century England - published in Danish as Gengældelsens Veje (Ways of Retaliation) in 1944 during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Dinesen acknowledged her authorship only a decade later, stating that she had written the novel merely "to amuse myself"; but the English editions have an epigraph (impossible to publish in the Danish version" from within the book: "You serious people must not be too hard on human beings for what they choose to amuse themselves with when they are shut up as in a prison and not even allowed to say that they are prisoners. If I do not soon get a little bit of fun, I shall die." 8vo, beige cloth with knockout lettering on black inlaid box on spine, gilt drawing on front, decorative black border on front board, light shelf wear, boards soiled… Read More

Heinemann, 1979. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 229 pages. Foreword by Hannah Arendt (being a New Yorker review of a biography of Dinesen, from 1967). Translations from Danish by P.M. Mitchell, W.D. Paden. Dates of the essays, some written in English and some translated from Danish for this edition, range from 1938 to 1958. 8vo, cranberry-red cloth with gilt lettering on spine, blue end papers, corners sharp, boards slightly bowed, in unclipped shelf-worn and rubbed DJ, slight vertical indentation to front panel and board. Pages bright and unmarked. Laid-in clipping of newspaper review by Anne Born (probably from the TLS) of this book.

Putnam, 1957. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Good/Fair. 405 pages. UK (first) edition, late collection of Dinesen's tales. 8vo, black cloth with rubbed gilt lettering on spine, small vertical split at crown, slightly cocked, blue topstain faded, a few faint spots of foxing to fore-edge and end papers, in unclipped DJ lightly soiled/toned all over with browner tone to spine and brown stain on the interior, small tears and chipping at crown and heel. Name of former owners written on ffep, pencil marks or notes in margin of approximately 20 pages.

Random House, 1942. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Fair/No Jacket. 313 pages. First printing stated. Eleven tales. 8vo, gray cloth over boards heavily worn and soiled, color-printed end papers, backstrip half-disintegrated and taped with duct tape that cannot be removed without further damage, front hinge cracked, edges age-toned. Portrait of Dinesen clipped from a magazine taped to copyright page. Interior of the book is in good shape, with spots on a few pages, underscoring and/or small marks by former owner Prof. Ann E. Berthoff on approximately 60 pages, and a longer note by her on the second rfep, reflecting on reading these tales again after 30 years. A much-loved and well-used copy.