NOT LONG AGO
my dad passed along to me his copy of Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria
Quartet, the universally acclaimed 20th century tetralogy that explores
contrasted perspectives of a romance set within the dying embers of
the storied Levantine center. I attribute so much of my connection to books to
growing up in a house full of them, literally cheek to spine with them
since crawling age when almost certainly the physical attributes of books as objects, e.g.
color, typeface and cover art, began to etch my senses. Because the A.Q. is renowned mid-century lit these attractive volumes had (but weren't alone in having) some presence on the family bookshelves. And after they landed on mine I was happily surprised to
discover they were US (Dutton) first editions. The boxed collection was released in 1961.
The original UK Faber first edition illustrated jackets are just as beautiful.
Then there are the Faber and Dutton trade paperback editions:
And finally, early mass market covers by Cardinal clearly stamped with imagery that might be thought of as Levantine in a Hollywood kind of way.
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