VERGIL IN AVERNO

Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1987. [4], 184 pp. Original white paper covered boards. [21.5 cm.] Very good plus in very good dust jacket. Just a hint of faint foxing or soil to edges of spine; some very faint tanning to endpapers; minor dust soiling to top edge. Jacket is a trifle age-toned and has a tiny closed tear to the head of the front panel with neat repair on verso, a minor scuff to the front panel, and slight evidence of soiling to the extremities. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. His presentation inscription begins on the front free endpaper: "For Eva McKenna, with the compliments and affection of the Author." It is continued on the half-title: "-- but this is not `the sequel to the Phoenix and the Mirror,' though it will form with it parts of the trinity of trilogies, The Ennead entitled `Vergil Magnus;' and may we both live to see it. A.D." The book is signed by the author on the title page, which also bears his manuscript subtitle ("Or, the Very Rich City") and his symbol, which is repeated on the following page and on a rear endpaper. The recipient of the inscription was Eva Mae (née Grice) McKenna (1921-1988), a librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the wife of the author, Richard McKenna, who wrote "The Sand Pebbles." Contrary to Davidson's expressed hope, neither he nor Eva McKenna lived to see the publication of the third volume of the Vergil Magnus trilogy, which was issued posthumously in 2005.