PALE HORSE, PALE RIDER. Three Short Novels

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1939. Fourth Printing. Hardcover. A very good copy bound in light green cloth (spine sunned) lacking the dust jacket. This fourth printing copy has the ownership signature of "Madeleine L'Engle Camp / March 4, 1941 / Bird-in-Hand-Court" to the front pastedown in black ink. The three short novels are: Old Mortality, Noon Wine, and Pae Horse, Pale Rider. From the gothic Old South to revolutionary Mexico, few writers have evoked such a multitude of worlds, both exterior and interior, as powerfully as Katherine Anne Porter. This collection gathers together the best of her Pulitzer Prize-winning short fiction, including 'Pale Horse, Pale Rider', where a young woman lies in a fever during the influenza epidemic, her childhood memories mingling with fears for her fiancé on his way to war, and 'Noon Wine', a haunting story of tragedy and scandal on a small dairy farm in Texas. In all of the compelling stories collected here, harsh and tragic truths are expressed in prose both brilliant and precise. As for Madeleine L'Engle, she is perhaps best recognized as the author of A Wrinkle in Time (1962), the enduring milestone work of fantasy fiction that won the 1963 John Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature and has enthralled millions of readers.