MISS ZILPHIA GANT

(Dallas): The Book Club of Texas, 1932. Very good plus.. Limited edition of Faulkner's story of a wretched girl with a tyrannical mother, its first and only publication until its inclusion in 1979's UNCOLLECTED STORIES OF WILLIAM FAULKNER. Completed in 1928, "Miss Zilphia Gant" impressed Alfred Dashiell of Scribner's Magazine as "by far the most coherent thing of yours I have seen"; this did not mean, however, that he was willing to publish it. The story - a bleak and downright Gorey-esque study of a wan and haunted waif with eyes like holes in blotting paper who grows up to run screaming through the dark in her nightdress - was subsequently accepted by THE SOUTHWEST REVIEW, but not published there, due to Faulkner's unwillingness to make requested cuts. Even after its rediscovery and reprinting in the 1970s, "Miss Zilphia Gant" was never elevated to the exalted status of longtime anthology-fixture "A Rose For Emily," but it deserved to be. Scarce. 8'' x 5.25''. Original gilt-stamped brown cloth. 29, [1] pages. Edition of 300 copies designed and printed by J.M. Colville & Son, this copy no. 273. Light bumping and wear to boards; spine sunned with faint spotting. Bookplate to front paste-down with some offsetting to fly leaf. Minor foxing to endpapers.