On my little Couch. Holly and Carrie, waiting.

I follow PenguinBooks on Twitter and they sent me an email! Asked about my favorite book. Nice guys;-). Here it is: Breakfast at Tiffany´s, of course (why of course??). I adore Truman Capote. When I was young, I loved the movie and Audrey Hepburn (so does my sweet 17 at home: back home from her first trip to New York City with her Dad, she proudly presented her brandnew Audrey-Tiffany´s-Shirt;-)); in my mature years, I think Capote was right to prefer Marilyn as Holly:

Audrey was a Belgian noblewoman with a British father; Marilyn would have been the better choice for playing this broken American country rose, abused as a child, spoilt as a teenager and used as a woman; Audrey, a former professional ballet dancer, is nothing but a pretty face and chic coat-tree and no actress (and she knows); George Peppard is a big pain in the arse, a true joke as Mary Astor´s toyboy and definitly not gay like the guy in the novel; shame on Jerry Lewis as Mr Yunioshi; and - from the point of narrative technique - an important character like Joe, the Bartender that structures the whole story, in the movie is of no importance at all. And I do hate Audrey singing and the Hollywood happy ending crap (Maryilin would have given it the ironic treatment).

Have got a smart and not that often offered copy of this umpteen times edited novel still beloved by readers up to this very day - a British pocket edition of 1961, republished 1962 (twice), 1963, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1969. The cover illustration of an unknown artist is gorgeous, pop art-like and puts it in a nutshell, doesn´t it? The edition is pretty rare and of a good, not quite fine, condition. Collectors interested should contact me via this blog.

At the moment, Holly is taking a nap on my brandnew bookshop couch- together with
Sister Carrie ("abridged for modern readers"), ed. 2nd printing nov. 1962 (first oct. 1962) for the mass market by Pocket Books Inc., Rockefeller Center, NYC (those with "Gertrude the Kangaroo"), published by arrangement with Mrs Theodore Dreiser. With an introduction (with parts of it edited in the New York Times Book Review 1949) by editor Maxwell Geismar, a New York college professor, literary critic and biographer (read about Maxwell Geismar at the New York State Literary Tree); the especially fine, advertising-poster-like front cover illustration is by Roy Price, as the back cover tells me. I found this one by Roy Price at artnet - must have been the same model, maybe his girl! Nothing more is told about this almost forgotten artist on the internet - would like to know more: anybody there who could tell me?

By the way: both pocket books are for sale; the little obviously handmade couch is not: guess where I found it? On the street - waiting all by itself for the bulk rubbish truck! I took it home and will keep it as a resting place for my paper guests on their journey through. This time for Carrie and Holly.

Both books are listed - together with numerous exciting and interesting editions offered by various bookshops from the US, from the UK and from Europe - at Amazon-.

"In your rocking chair, by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel." Or on my little couch......