THE SALAMANDER

Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1914. First Edition. First Printing of Johnson's influential novel - the first book to feature a flapper as a protagonist, and the inspiration for Zelda Fitzgerald's glamorous and destructive life. Johnson described a few breed of women, the "salamanders," who rejected domesticity for the intoxication of city life, where they patronized speakeasies and had affairs in a fashion completely unthinkable only a generation before. Within just a few years, these women would become known as the "flappers" of the Jazz Age. The novel was a success upon publication, reaching an estimated ten million readers, and the stage and film adaptations, both wildly successful, featured Ruth Findlay in the lead role of Doré Baxter. Rare in dustjacket. Smith J-117. First Printing. Octavo; vertical-ribbed dark green cloth, with titling, rule, and decorations stamped in gilt and in blind on spine and front cover; dustjacket; 529pp; frontiespiece and 15 illustrated plates in black and white by Everett Shinn. Neat, contemporary owners name and tiny, three-letter rubber-stamp to front endpaper; base of spine gently nudged, with some pinpoint wear at crown; bright, fresh, and very Near Fine. Pictorial dustjacket is priced $1.35 net at mid-spine; light toning and edge-rubbing, with a triangular chip to lower right corner of front panel slightly affecting illustration; shallow loss to spine ends and corner tips, front flap neatly detached from front panel, with a few short edge tears and small splits; Very Good.