The City of the Living

Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1956. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 205pp. Octavo. [21cm] Sea-green paper over boards with the title stamped in yellow on the spine. No dust jacket. Light bumping to extremities; subtle sunning to backstrip and edges of rear board; minor scrape to front board. "A sheaf of short stories, eight in all, are undercut by the realities of poverty, death, and acceptance of the immutable facts which only experience can teach, a moment of sudden recognition. With the exception of the sardonic Field Guide to Western Birds, in which a retired literary agent applies his agile powers of observation to his neighbors- collected at a cocktail party- in a curd commentary, the others are more straightforward in their unpleasant truths.' - Kirkus (October 23, 1956).