Can I Get There by Candlelight

New York: Atheneum. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. 1964. First Edition. Hardcover. [light shelfwear, slight fading to edges of boards, tiny date rubber-stamped in red at top corner of front endpaper, two dates written in ink at bottom right corner of front endpaper; the jacket is scuffed on the front panel, with small tears and some associated creasing at the upper corners of the spine]. Unaccountably scarce novel about an American airman stationed in London during World War II, who meets a middle-aged woman, "twice his years, a lusty, aging but ageless painter, with a fleeting fame for having once been Modigliani's mistress, [who] introduces him to the Bohemian world of her own extraordinary past, during the legendary days of Paris" -- and in the present time, introduces him to a young married English woman with whom he embarks on a passionate affair. The author, who himself served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and was stationed in London during World War II (funny coincidence, eh?), was never a full-time writer, but still managed to turn out nine novels over the course of three decades while holding down a series of day jobs, including as an investigator of the New York City Department of Welfare, a consultant on public welfare to various New York State officials and committees, and as public relations director for a health insurance organization. .