Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), author
Alvin Lustig (1915-1955), designer
Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), designer
James Avati (1912-2005), illustrator
Originally titled “Moon of Pause,” The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (a novella) was first published in 1950 by New Directions and was the first of the author’s two novels. (His second was published more than two decades later, Moise and the World of Reason, in 1975.) The typescript shown here bears the original title, a note from Williams’s longtime agent Audrey Wood to the typing service for the manuscript, and the signature of New Directions editor Paul Bigelow. In addition to a limited edition, “specially bound and signed by the author,” New Directions published The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone with an abstract book jacket by the prominent designer Alvin Lustig. British publisher Lehman chose Cecil Beaton to design the cover for its edition. The 1952 Signet paperback edition, marketed by the New American Library whose slogan was “Good Reading for the Millions,” featured cover art by James Avati, who has been called the “chiaroscuro master of paperback realism.”
All items from the Norman Unger collection
- “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone,” undated. Typescript (carbon) with altered title and autograph corrections, undated
- The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone. New York: New Directions, 1950. "Five hundred copies ... have been specially bound and signed by the author." Author's autograph presentation copy to Norman Unger, February 1951
- The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone. First edition. New York: New Directions, 1950. Cover art and design by Alvin Lustig. Author’s autograph presentation copy to Norman Unger
- The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone. London: J. Lehmann, 1950. Cover art and design by Cecil Beaton. Author's autograph presentation copy to Norman Unger
- The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone. First printing. Signet Books, 955. New York: New American Library, 1952. Cover art by James Avati
