The Life I Really Lived. Signed by Jessamyn West. First Trade Edition, First Printing. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. New York, 1979.

Jessamyn West was a literary author from the twentieth century. She published numerous works and received significant critical attention in her lifetime. Her most famous book is undeniably The Friendly Persuasion. It was adapted to film in 1956. It was also her first book-length publication. Drawing on her family’s connections to the Quakers of Indiana, it also established West’s association with that American community. In The Life I really Lived, West plays further with her personal story. It is an autobiographical novel about a fiction writer known for family narratives, but in reality, the protagonist’s life is far more messy than her fiction would suggest. 

This first trade edition, first printing is signed by West on the publisher’s tipped in leaf. It is in fine condition. In the original cloth, fine. Text block fine. In the original dust jacket, near-fine with only minor chipping to top edges. With the Kroch’s and Brentano’s First Edition Circle bookmark laid in.

A fine signed first trade edition by Jessamyn West.