a rage to live

new York, NY: random house, 1949. SIGNED BY BENNETT CERT OF RANDOM HOUSE TO H T FARNWALT AUG 12 1. Hard cover. Good. No dust jacket. Rage To Live BY JOHN O HARA-1ST Edition Hardcover CONDITION GOOD SIGNED BY BENNETT CERT OF RANDOM HOUSE TO H T FARNWALT AUG 12 1949 1949-NO DUST JACKET Grace Caldwell was the young woman who stood out in her community, for her... First edition. 590 p. Rage To Live BY JOHN O HARA-1ST Edition Hardcover CONDITION GOOD SIGNED BY BENNETT CERT OF RANDOM HOUSE TO H T FARNWALT AUG 12 1949 1949-NO DUST JACKET Grace Caldwell was the young woman who stood out in her community, for her wealth, her athleticism Rage To Live BY JOHN O HARA-1ST Edition Hardcover CONDITION GOOD SIGNED BY BENNETT CERT OF RANDOM HOUSE TO H T FARNWALT AUG 12 1949 1949-NO DUST JACKET Grace Caldwell was the young woman who stood out in her community, for her wealth, her athleticism and her confident, striking appearance. She was beloved of her family and suffered little in the way of childhood traumas or incidents that might darken her satisfied sense of life and herself. She was also a girl and later a woman with the sex drive of what at the time was considered-a man. More than that, she acted on it and what began in youth became a part of the rest of her life, that is the addition of a secret sexual fire and behavior that smoldered through her position as nothing less than wife, mother and social leader of the town. The Rage to Live is a book that accurately and presciently tells of an era of transition. In that Pennsylvania small town, the country and the heroine; a transition was occuring wherein the upper classes would no longer be secure to behave however they chose. It was also an era when over-indulgence itself was in the process of entering the mainstream, i.e. was democratized. That did not lead to an increased forgiveness in the part of the newly liberated, however. The old horse riding, martini drinking gentry has transformed even more over the years, but the Grace Caldwells and their trademark entitlement still can be found in various suburbs in and around the east coast and in the summers along the various coasts. Grace and her family and her fate makes for a great story O'Hara is one of the most underrated of American writers. _Rage to Live_ builds a strong character in Grace Caldwell Tate--her passions are handled with delicacy and skill and her story is told with a rare combination of affection and judgement. A good place to begin with O'Hara if you don't know his work already.