All Kneeling

New York: Harper & Brothers. Very Good in Good dj. 1928. First Edition. Hardcover. [book lightly shelfworn, dust-soiling to top page edges; jacket worn along bottom edge, shallow chipping at spine ends (no loss of text) and along bottom of rear panel, small tears at most corners, front flap detached but held nicely in place by protective jacket cover, considerable age-browning to entire jacket although externally visible only at rear panel and flap edges] The story of a beautiful young author, a woman with "a sweet, sensitive soul that responded to the beauties of nature and poured itself out in lyric poetry. All who came into contact with her were captivated by her charm. No one suspected that beneath this spiritual sensitivity lay deliberate strategy and that her every movement was prompted by a selfish aim." Hm. Sounds like this dame was, well, Born to Be Bad -- which, by an amazing coincidence, was the name of the movie that Nicholas Ray made from this book in 1950, with Joan Fontaine and Robert Ryan. (Laid in to this copy is an interesting piece of related ephemera: a bookmark announcing the book as that month's "BookSelection," chosen by an editorial committee of the American Booksellers Association.) .