One Arm and Other Stories (Limited Ed., Tennessee Williams)

First Edition, First Printing (New Directions, 1948). Limited to only 1,500 copies. Fine in a very good plus slipcase. Quite scarce thus in this top condition. Second state, with copyright page a cancel, assigning the copyright to Williams and not the publisher, New Directions, incorrectly. (The number of copies with the first title-leaf is quite small, with one source suggesting that as few as 20-25 such copies exist.)

This was Tennessee Williams' first book of short fiction showcasing eleven wonderful stories. One Arm established Williams as a short story writer of the same stature and interest he had shown as a dramatist. In “One Arm” we live through his last hours and memories with a 'rough trade" ex-prizefighter who is awaiting execution for murder. "The Field of Blue Children" explores some of the strange ways of the human heart in love, "Portrait of a Girl in Glass" is a luminous and nostalgic recollection of characters who figure in "The Glass Menagerie," while "Desire and the Black Masseur" is an excursion into the logic of the macabre. "The Yellow Bird," well known through the author's recorded reading of it, which tells of a minister's daughter who found a particularly violent but satisfactory way of expiating a load of inherited puritan guilt, may well become part of American mythology

Fine in original cloth covered boards with a repeating hand print design in blue and white, and rust colored cloth spine binding, all spine text and image gilt. Richly colored and unfaded, in truly excellent condition. Internally fine, as new. Slipcase very good plus, with bright and clean pastedown matching the title page, and with corner and a bit of edge wear wear, including some chipping on the lower spine corner and case edge (see photos). Quite rare in this wonderful condition, as most cases are falling apart to some extent. Octavo. 210 pp. A truly love collector's copy or gift.