Seven Gothic Tales. - 1934

New York: The Modern Library, 1934. First Modern Library edition of this classic collection of short stories. Octavo, original cloth, patterned endpapers. Boldly signed by the author on the half-title page, "Isak Dinesen 8.3.1959." From the library of Bruce Gould and Beatrice Blackmar Gould were co-editors of the Ladies' Home Journal for almost 27 years, from 1935 through 1962, including the golden years of the magazine. Time magazine wrote upon their 1962 retirement, the Goulds took an undistinguished journal in a field that "took the patronizing view that a woman's interests were largely confined to the home" and led by "Beatrice's sure feeling for the emancipated women's tastes, it invited its readers to plunge up to the elbows not only in bread dough but in life." The magazine pushed for "purity in politics as well as in maternity wards" and fought against venereal disease and child abuse. Attention-getting articles and addressing feminine health problems openly were published, as well as top fiction pieces." Near fine in very good later issue dust jacket, with Bruce Gould's signature to the front free endpaper. Introduction by Dorothy Canfield. Seven Gothic Tales (translated by the author into Danish as: Syv Fantastiske Fortaellinger) is a collection of short stories by the Danish author Karen Blixen (under the pen name Isak Dinesen), first published in 1934, three years before her memoir Out of Africa. The collection, consisting of stories set mostly in the nineteenth century, contains her tales "The Deluge at Norderney" and "The Supper at Elsinore".