Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Three Short Novels

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1939. Hardcover. 8vo. Green cloth with dark green lettering, price-clipped dust jacket. 264pp. Very good/very good. Binding faintly worn, though internally tight and near fine; jacket a tad edgeworn with a few tiny edge chips (mainly corners), though complete and overall attractive. Nice first edition of this compilation of the novellas "Old Mortality," "Noon Wine" and the title tale. This interesting presentation copy is boldly inscribed and signed by Porter on the front flyleaf "For Margaret Harvey / Old Mortality vanquished / so far! / Katherine Anne / Aug. 3 1942." In 1918 Porter worked briefly for the "Rocky Mountain News" in Denver, and there befriended fellow journalist Harvey. Below her inscription, Harvey adds her own dates of employment at this newspaper: "Denver: September 1: October 15, 1918-1919." Porter left the paper when the 1918 flu pandemic nearly killed her; when discharged from the hospital she was bald and her hair grew back white -- and the ordeal from which she felt "vanquished" informs these tales. (Forty-seven years later Porter wrote Harvey a long letter in which she chatted about their time at the "Rocky Mountain News" and how it provided the framework for "Pale Horse.") An intriguing copy of a scarce title.