Faulkner, William

Minneapolis; Faulkner Studies, 1955. 23x16 cm. (3, 1 blank), 9, (1) pp. Publisher's tan cloth with black lettering, no dustjacket as issued. Foot of spine and corners a bit bumped and the spine slightly faded. A light dampstain on rear board. The first 3 leaves with a cornerfold. No. 170 of 500 numbered copies. Massey 463. Petersen A32d. First book edition of the two stories, which were first printed in Times-Picayune in 1925. With the signature of Else Jonsson on the front free endpaper. That William Faulkner would be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950 had been predicted by the Swedish author, journalist and connoisseur of American literature Thorsten Jonsson (1910-1950), who admired Faulkner’s works and who acted as his main introducer in Sweden. Jonsson was Dagens Nyheter's USA correspondent from 1943-46 and made his statement while interviewing Faulkner at Rowan Oak in 1946. Unfortunately, Jonsson didn’t live to see his prediction come true. At the dinner party given the night before the Nobel Banquet by Faulkner’s Swedish publisher, a toast was proposed for Jonsson, as “the man most responsible for our gathering tonight”. Among the dinner guests was Else Jonsson, his widow, who had been invited both as a guest of honour and as a fluent speaker of English with a broad knowledge of American customs. She and Faulkner immediately found each other, and they met several times during his stay in Stockholm. Their encounter developed into a life-long passion and friendship, clearly seen in the many letters Faulkner wrote to her, and they managed to spend some time together in Paris, Holmenkollen (Norway) and Stockholm during the years to come. In his first love letter to her, dated the fifteenth of December 1950, he asks himself how he will be able to return to the USA without seeing her again. He also says that being a Noble Prize bloke is nothing compared to spending an afternoon with her. Faulkner’s last letter is dated the 14th of December 1960.