Item #29699 THE PYX. Signed. John Buell.

THE PYX. Signed.

New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1959.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Author. First Edition of the author's first novel. 8vo., 174 pp. Black cloth, gilt & red titles to spine. An exceptional nice collector's grade copy neatly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "To Irene Robertson, / with my best wishes, / John Buell". A fast-paced [occult] murder mystery adapted into film in 1973 with Christopher Plummer and Karen Black. A very excellent copy. One of Canada's most private authors, John [Edward] Buell is a full time professor at Concordia University in Montreal. As a part time novelist, he has written four novels in seventeen years that have gained respect of reviewers at home and abroad. Yet he remains an obscure writer. But his lack of celebrity is by design, for Buell has shunned the literary limelight in favor of the university life, which has allowed him the quiet and security to write. The PYX and Four Days brought the author to the attention of American critic Edmund Wilson, who in his 1964 book O Canada observed: "One of the most interesting of the young Canadian novelists is John Buell of Montreal." Comparing the two books, Wilson noted: "Four Days , though we are still in the underworld, is an effort on a higher level, a narrative equally full of suspense that is also a psychological study." - Dictionary of Literary Biography.

Item #29699    Price: US$375.00