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BECKER, M. JANET Thirsty Oak: First Edition
Coward-McCann, Inc. 1950. First Edition. Hard Cover. Good/Good. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING HARDCOVER. No additional printings on copyright page, $3.00 list price on dust jacket flap. Author's first novel. Very good hardcover in good dust jacket. Binding tight, pages clean & bright. Dust jacket edge & surface wear, 3" tear, 1" tear and several 1/2" tears on dust jacket. "Everyone in the quiet little English town knew that David Flegg was rich, and a gentleman, but they knew only this about him. Even old Miss Bumble, his housekeeper whose sense of propriety and sharp tongue were to be feared, dared not question further his quiet statement at a town meeting that 'I was born poor, without a father, but thanks to the early teaching I received I have had a full, a very full life.' What he had done was wonderful, they said, and he was a wonderful person, but with that meager information they had to be content. Only little Phyllis, a child who liked to listen to his stories and thumb through his photograph album, knew of the early life of this David without Jonathan, and she did not realize what she knew. Loving the old man, she took him one night a twopenny bunch of primroses bought with her own money, which started a chain of reminiscences that culminated in Mr. Flegg's announcement to a startled chaufferu, 'today we are going to visit my old home.' What he saw in the old Suffolk town, the people he met and those he remembered -- a poor waif hungering for knowledge, the rich people at the Manor, Lucy Greycoat and her wondrous kindness -- comprise a strange and delightful story. It takes David Flegg a long time to find out what made him a misfit, why he strove for the things he ultimately obtained, though the two he most coveted were denied him. This book is the tale of a typical Englishman of his time, thirsting for the kind of life and companionship that were his by every right but that of birth. Miss Becker has published works of historical research and a volume of poems. In this, her first novel, she has drawn largely upon her special knowledge of the locale in which she sets her story, knowledge she began to gather at the age of nine upon walks with a Suffolk nursemaid. She observes with accuracy and writes with love for her subjects and characters. The result is a moving tale of simple people in one of the least spoilt of English counties in the days before mechanized farming.".
Offered for US$ 11.25 by: Yesterday's Muse Books - Book number: 023862