Many Thousands Gone [*SIGNED*]

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Very Good. 1931. First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [a good sound copy with no significant wear, would rate higher than Very Good but for the fact that the gilt spine lettering, while very strong and bright on the front cover, is almost completely rubbed away on the spine]. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper: "To Jane Hutchins / with sincere regards / and best wishes for her / literary career. / John Peale Bishop / [B_____ / July 27, 1936." (The word beginning with B is obviously a city or other location, but I can't read it.) The author's first and only book of short stories, five tales all set in the American South between 1852 and 1900; the title piece, one of his best-known works, won a $5,000 prize in a Scribner's Magazine story contest. The inscribee of this copy was likely a relative of Bishop's wife Margaret Hutchins, to whom he was married from 1922 until his death in 1944; I find no evidence, however, that Jane Hutchins's "literary career" ever amounted to anything. Laid in at the front of this copy is a small portrait photograph of a woman; could this be her? Signed by Author .