Greene, Graham

8vo, FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY GREENE TO KENNETH RICHMOND ("For Kenneth Richmond | from | Graham Greene | Oct. 1930.") on the front free endpaper, half-title, original dark blue cloth, lettered in gilt on spine, FIRST ISSUE DUST-JACKET (priced "7/6" on spine), collector's folding morocco box by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, boards slightly rubbed, some spotting, repairs to head spine of dust-jacket at head and to small section below the price, further repairs to a few small tears

Wobbe A3a

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

AN IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY INSCRIBED TO THE TEENAGE GREENE'S PSYCHOANALYST. 

At the age of sixteen and following several years of deep unhappiness at boarding school, Greene was sent to stay with psychoanalyst Kenneth Richmond and his wife Zoe. As Greene wrote in A Sort of Life, "I don't know by what process of elimination my father and brother chose Kenneth Richmond to be my analyst, but it was a choice for which I have never ceased to be grateful, for at his house in Lancaster Gate began what were perhaps the happiest six months of my life".

A testament to his significance in the author's life, some nine years after his treatment, Greene sent this copy of his second novel to Richmond. He would go on to devote almost an entire chapter of his autobiography to these six months. Richmond was himself a writer and well connected in the literary world, and it was at his home that Greene was introduced to Walter de la Mare (a childhood favourite) and other authors and editors. This, combined with the tranquility of life in west London and Richmond's sensitive approach to the young man's fragile mental health "liberated" Greene, and "helped to start him on his long road as a writer" (Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, Volume One (1990), p.99).