The Name of Action
London: William Heinemann, (1930). Single volume, measuring 7.25 x 4.5 inches: [8], 344. Original navy blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, original yellow typographic dust jacket printed in red and black, with price of 7/6 on spine panel. Light wear to jacket spine ends, spine panel faintly sunned, stain to rear panel.
First edition, in the first state dust jacket, of Graham Greene’s elusive second novel. After the success of his 1929 debut The Man Within, Greene was given an unusually large advance to write The Name of Action, which introduces key elements of his later work: espionage, revolution, a doomed love story. In this case, a callow young Englishman’s plot to overthrow the German dictator is complicated by his infatuation with the man’s wife: “‘Mr. Chant, of – of South-West London -- offering the post of mistress to the wife of the Dictator of Trier. Doesn’t it strike you as amusing – as,’ she added fiercely, ‘impertinent?’” A critical and commercial disappointment, The Name of Action was a source of embarrassment to Greene, who suppressed further publication: “I was trying to write my first political novel, knowing nothing of politics.” A near-fine copy of a scarce book, in a remarkably fresh jacket.
Price: $9,500.00