Years Are So Long

New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. 1934. First Edition. Hardcover. [good solid book, minimal shelfwear but lightly dampstained around base of spine; jacket shows a little wear at extremities and edges, but quite presentable in new mylar]. Sentimental novel about an elderly couple who become dependent on their adult children when the father loses his job and their resources are depleted. Although her reputation has not endured, Lawrence's novels of the 1930s, which focused on the problems faced by middle-class American families during the Great Depression, were both popular and critical successes. This book was the basis for the ultra-sentimental (but very moving) 1937 film MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW, directed by Leo McCarey and starring Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi as the story's elderly couple. (I've always loved the fact that while Moore was legitimately qualified, at the age of 61, to play "old," Beulah Bondi at the time was only 49 -- just five years older than Fay Bainter, who played her daughter-in-law, and one year younger than the actress who played her daughter!) Hollywood never came calling again, but (perhaps as some kind of testament to the universality of its theme) this particular novel has also been the basis for TV or film productions in Brazil, the USSR, and India. .