Anecdotes of Destiny.

First edition of this classic collection of stories and the last to be published in her lifetime. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "John Steinbeck With love from Isak Dinesen New York 29.1.1959." In 1959, Dinesen had been invited by the Ford Foundation to travel to the United States to read and discuss her work as part of a film series on “the world’s greatest living writers.” Despite her failing health—the frail seventy-four-year old weighed just 80 pounds she accepted the invitation. It was on this trip where she met John Steinbeck for cocktails and inscribed this copy. Very good in a very good dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. A remarkable association, linking these two giants of twentieth century literature.