The Gift Horse: Report on a Life

NY: McGraw-Hill Book Company. Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 1971. First American Edition. First Printing. Hard Cover. Stated first American edition, first printing. Publisher's full burgundy cloth, silver lettering on spine with gilt tooling, blind-stamped hobby-horse medallion on cover, top edge red, red endpapers. Translated from the German by David Anthony Palastranga. Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef (1925 – 2002) was a German actress, singer, and writer. During her career, she performed in over 50 films. Nineteen of her films were produced in countries other than Germany: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Austria and Spain. In 1955, Knef was offered a starring role in the Broadway musical Silk Stockings by Cole Porter, which was based on the 1939 film Ninotchka, which had starred Greta Garbo in the title role. Knef had acted in at least 30 films in the United States and Europe, but her triumph came in New York when she played Ninotchka, an unemotional Soviet commissar. The New York Times drama critic Brooks Atkinson described her rendition as "an immensely skillful performance." Her autobiography "Der geschenkte Gaul: Bericht aus einem Leben" (The Gift Horse: Report on a Life, 1970 (American Edition 1971)) was a candid recount of her life in Germany during and after the Second World War, and reportedly became the best-selling German book in the post-war years.. The volume is in perfect condition, except for a small label shadow on the ffep, else as new; tight, square, seemingly unread, and clean. The unclipped ($7.95) dust jacket is only very lightly worn along the top edge only, else fine. FINE/NEAR FINE. . 8vo 8" - 9" tall. (viii), 384 pp .