Books

London: Michael Joseph, 1962. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine-/Fine-. First Impression of the Nobel laureate's "indispensable" masterpiece, significant "as the most massive statement made, up to that time, on the position of woman in the modern world." (Burgess). Tall, thick 8vo: 568pp. Publisher's black boards, spine lettered in gilt; first-issue typographic dust jacket (photograph of Lessing to rear panel) designed by William Belcher, priced 30s. About Fine (dust-soiled edges, mild offsetting to end papers), square, tight, probably unread; about Fine jacket (lightly dust soiled back panel, several edge nicks), still vibrant and bright. Time 100. Burgess 99. p.86. NYPL Books of the Century, p.130. Callil and Toibin 52. "Anna Wulf is a writer who keeps four notebooks, each a different color, each reflecting a different part of her. The black one contains recollections of her youthful wartime years in West Africa . . . In the red one she reflects on her later life in London's…

Published in 1962, 'The Golden Notebook' is considered to be Doris Lessing's masterpiece, exploring themes of mental and societal breakdown.