Do you want the good news first or the bad news? Okay, good news. I discovered a great book whilst browsing the stacks this week and by an author you may well be familiar with and perhaps have even read. I checked it out and started reading, and very contentedly was working away on Christopher Morley's Kitty Foyle.
The bad news is: a cursory glance through the book one day ended in the discovery of not one page torn from the book but two--so a total of four pages of text missing (and maybe more?). I thought at first it might have simply been an accident, but the second missing page is ripped clean from the spine of the book. I'm so disappointed--not only for myself and other possible readers but am disappointed that someone would deface a book in such a way and ruin someone else's reading experience.
An American author writing during the first half of the twentieth century, Christopher Morley was quite prolific. He was a journalist, wrote novels, essays and poems and is (according to the wikipedia) best known for his 1939 novel Kitty Foyle. I, however, had only been familiar with two earlier novels, which are still in print: Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop, both books for booklovers that rank up there with 84 Charing Cross Road. He published over a hundred works and my library has fifteen of them. The New York Times called Kitty Foyle "sparkling" in an October 1939 review, and an ad describes the book thus:
"To speak of this book as having an 'author' is almost irrelevant. This is Kitty Foyle, speaking for herself... Kitty Foyle, representative of a generation of women who were children in the 1920s and girls in the 1930s, and who have known a special kind of joy and trouble."
"That the story of Kitty Foyle, thought by herself to herself, would never intentionally be put on paper, is obvious. That is why Christopher Morley does it."
It must have been quite a hit upon publication as my library's edition was in the seventh printing in December 1939 after having only been published in October of the same year. There are two due date slips still attached inside and judging by the many dates stamped it was heavily circulated from 1954 to 1984 (previous date due slips may have been removed). The poor book has also been mended so at least other readers were able to enjoy it even if I will likely have to look for another source for this particular title (I can at least read through the first ripped page while I search for another copy). I love this era of history and the novel seems representative of the period, so I'm naturally curious to read it.
Kitty Foyle was also adapted into a movie in 1940 and nominated for Academy Awards in several categories, which resulted in an award for best actress Ginger Rogers (her only Oscar). It was also made into a radio play and TV soap opera. I thought I'd share the trailer for the movie.
Although I didn't bring it home with me, I also pulled from the library's shelf Christopher Morley's New York, which is a collection of essays written after WWI. I only wish I had thought to bring it home with me over the long weekend, but it's always nice to have books to look forward to later. And it's not as though I have nothing else to read!