SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION OF OBSCURE DESTINIES, ONE OF ONLY 260 COPIES SIGNED BY WILLA CATHER

CATHER, Willa. Obscure Destinies. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1932. Octavo, original cream and green paper boards, gilt paper cover label, top edge gilt, uncut, original plain dust jacket, original slipcase. $700.

Signed limited first edition of a collection of three important stories by Cather, number 184 of only 260 copies signed by her (235 offered for sale)—her “final major work using the prairie setting.”

"A collection of three stories, Obscure Destinies (1932), was Willa Cather's final major work using the prairie setting for which she is famous. 'Neighbour Rosicky' described a Czech farmer and his family. It is a kind of sequel to My Ántonia. 'Old Mrs. Harris,' the best of all her short stories, re-creates Cather's grandmother, Cather's mother, and Vicki (Cather herself), a teenager getting ready to go to college. 'Two Friends' is a lesser tale, inspired by Cather's memory of listening to two Red Cloud businessmen talk in the evenings outside a store. After Obscure Destinies appeared, Cather and [companion Edith] Lewis ended five years of camping out in the old Grosvenor Hotel and moved into a Park Avenue apartment, where Cather spent her final years" (ANB). Crane A19a.1.

Tears and toning to scarce original dust jacket, book fine.