The Leopard
London, Collins & Harvill Press, 1960.
1 vol. (140 x 215 mm) of 254 p., [1] and 1 f. Publisher's boards with illustrated dust jacket.
First English edition and first foreign translation (by Archibald Colquhoun). First printing of the book and of its famous dust jacket illustrated by Hans Tisdall.
The first edition of Il Gattopardo was published in Milan in early November 1958. Giuseppe Tomasi, Prince of Lampedusa, Duke of Palma di Montechiaro, had died on 23 July of the previous year, from a malignant lung tumor diagnosed in April 1957. Lampedusa therefore never knew the posterity of his work, whose fame proved as sudden and rapid as his illness had been. The novel was an immediate success from the moment of publication. It won the Strega Prize in 1959, was translated into every major language, and was adapted for the screen by Visconti in 1963.
A fine copy.
#31577
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