Flash And Filigree Southern, Terry Lit

First edition of Southern's first novel, inscribed to legendary editor and critic Malcolm Cowley, who appreciated the younger writer as well as he was able. FLASH AND FILIGREE is a whirlwind satire on Los Angeles, on patients so irritating the best-behaved dermatologist must bludgeon them with ashtrays, on quiz shows and social disruptions and assorted other abstractions which defy (in typical Southern fashion) a summary started even with the best of intentions. David Ulin claimed it as the best of Southern's novels, calling it a "twisted parable about hypocrisy," which is certainly plausible. This copy is so little worn and so handsome to look upon one might suspect its first recipient of reading it no more than once, if that. Inscribed to Malcolm Cowley, who had something of an ambivalent relationship to Southern, once calling the PARIS REVIEW (which Southern helped found) an ''enterprise in the service of art.'' "[Southern] is an enormously gifted writer," Cowley would later state in an interview, "but most of his books I can't take." An interesting association. 7.25'' x 4.25''. Original black cloth with gilt-lettered spine. In original unclipped (12s 6d) dust jacket designed by Stephen Russ. 204 pages. Inscribed by Southern on front free endpaper: "To Malcolm Cowley with all best wishes. T. Southern." Minor edgewear and very faint chipping to jacket edges. Offsetting to endpapers.