Anna Hastings. By Allen Drury. Limited First Edition. Franklin Library. Franklin Center, 1977.

Allen Drury was an American author who published a remarkable amount of literature spanning all sorts of subject matter. As a political reporter during WWII, he catalogued some of the most consequential political decisions in American history. He later fictionalized some of those experiences in Advise and Consent, a novel that would earn him the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. For many decades, he published numerous other works, including this volume: Anna Hastings. It is a fictionalized account of its titular character, a newspaper reporter whose career ascends as she tactfully navigates the patriarchal world of American politics. The novel was a commercial success. It maintained Drury’s level of literary quality and remains one of his most widely read works.

This limited first edition is in about-fine condition. In the original leather, elaborately gilt stamped, near-fine with only minor rubbing and bumping to edges. Raised bands. Gilt spine label. Text block about-fine, only minor rubbing to gilt edges and former owner’s bookplate to limitation page. Silk moire endpapers and bookmark sewn in.

An about-fine collector’s copy of Anna Hastings.