Harropian Books

[O'Hara's 1st Separately Pub. Work] The Kungsholm Cruise News / Post Cruise Edition

O'Hara, John (Editor)

Shipboard Publication. (all 8 datelines state "On board M.S. Kungsholm"): Swedish American Line, 1934. First Edition, First Printing. Paperback. (No. 1, Saturday March 10th, 1934 to No. 8, Tuesday, March 27th, 1934) O'Hara's first - and rarest - "A" item, with no records found of "Reminiscences" ever having been seen at auction and OCLC locating just the single copy held in Kent State's Special Collections from the personal library of O'Hara's bibliographer, Matthew J. Bruccoli. Staple-bound burgundy card wrappers, title and decorations stamped in gilt onto upper and lower covers, 8vo (9 inches [23cm] tall), pp. unpaginated [42 inc. titles], illustrated throughout with line drawings and B&W photo reproductions, ads. Half-title states 'Reminiscences from "Kungsholm" West Indies Cruise March 9-March 28, 1934', title verso states "Editor.....John O'Hara" and each single issue also states "John O'Hara, Editor". An 18 day cruise aboard the Swedish American Line's M.S. Kungsholm, listing the ship's staff, cruise staff and a complete list of passengers, as well as the social programs and itinerary. Found among O'Hara's many articles and the descriptions of Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti, Bahamas, Panama, Curacao, Venezuela and Trinidad is his parody description of New York's social scene "Manhattan!". Volume has modest wear and creasing to covers, light soil to half-title with a few stray pencil marks, two brief underlingings in pencil and a faint mustiness attest to it's shipboard origins. Near Fine. Item #3356

Includes all issues (numbers 1-8) of The Kungsholm Cruise News, introduced and edited by John O'Hara with the final number referring to an unfinished, contracted manuscript of his.... "What about us (and by us we mean me)? Do you know what we're walking into? Well, this is what we're walking right into: on April 2, under the terms of a contract which was signed when the West Indies Cruise was no more than an advertisement in the Sunday papers, we are required to turn in the complete, final manuscript of a novel. And you guessed it. That nasty smile is the first sign of life you've shown in the last day and half. You guessed it. We've failed to complete the novel. Thursday at one we have a luncheon date with the publisher (Harcourt, Brace, Advt.), who right now goes his merry way, with the curious idea in mind that we are bringing with us the final MS. Take me home for one dollah!" O'Hara goes on to finish with "So here let us say adjö – if you can say it… Well, you see, Mr. Harcourt, when we were only two days out we had a Potts fracture of the left leg, and then…"[this sentence is underlined in pencil with the notation "me too!". Perhaps an early admission of O'Hara choosing pleasure before work, hmmm. The New Yorker published 221 of O'Hara's short stories, a number unequaled by any other writer. Ref. Bruccoli A1; Firsts vol. 7 no. 2; Ahearn 001a.

Price: $2,100.00 CAD  other currencies