NY: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982. First edition. Octavo; 216pp.; Orange boards, black quarter-cloth, in dust jacket. Signed by Babbitt on the title page.
Herbert Rowbarge details the successful but unhappy life of the titular character through the lens of his adult twin daughters. Having been separated from his own twin brother at birth, Rowbarge spends most of his life struggling under the burden of his unknown loss. Babbitt identified Herbert Rowbarge as her personal favorite among her books.
Mild shelfwear to board bottoms, some light waterspotting to textblock top, and a couple of minor spots of soiling to front endpaper. In a price-clipped jacket showing moderate rubbing.
A very good plus copy in like jacket of this elegantly written short novel, something of an outlier in the oeuvre of a writer best known for Tuck Everlasting and her other young-adult novels. An exemplary work of prose, uncommon signed.
