Muriel Spark Collection. [The Fanfarlo and Other Verse, My Best Mary, The Go-Away Bird, The Seraph and the Zambesi, Collected Stories I, The Public Image, The Abbess of Crewe, The Takeover, Territorial Rights, Loitering with Intent].

SPARK, Muriel.

Muriel Spark Collection. [The Fanfarlo and Other Verse, My Best Mary, The Go-Away Bird, The Seraph and the Zambesi, Collected Stories I, The Public Image, The Abbess of Crewe, The Takeover, Territorial Rights, Loitering with Intent].

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Rare Collection of the novels of Muriel Spark; including The Go-Away Bird, The Public Image, and The Abbess of Crewe

Rare first edition collection of the selected novels of Muriel Spark. Octavo, 8 volumes and 3 pamphlets. The collection includes first editions of The Fanfarlo and Other Verse [Aldington: The Hand and Flower Press, 1952], My Best Mary [London: Allan Wingate, 1953. Jacket design by A.L.C. Savory], The Go-Away Bird [London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1958. Jacket design by Reinganum], The Seraph and the Zambesi [Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, n.d.], Collected Stories I [London: Macmillan, 1967. Jacket design by Jaunita Grout], The Public Image [London: Macmillan, 1968. Jacket photograph by Jerry Bauer], The Abbess of Crewe [London: Macmillan, 1974. Jacket painting by Linnet Gotch], The Takeover [London: Macmillan, 1976. Jacket illustration by Peter Goodfellow], Territorial Rights [London: Macmillan, 1979. Jacket illustration by John Alcorn], and Loitering with Intent [London: The Bodley Head, 1981. Jacket design by Michael Harvey]. Each volume is near fine to fine in very good to near fine dust jackets.

Scottish novelist Muriel Spark began writing in the late 1940s as a literary critic. In 1947, she became editor of Poetry Review, making her one of the only female editors of the era. In 1953 Muriel Spark was baptised in the Church of England but in 1954 she decided to join the Roman Catholic Church, which she considered crucial in her development toward becoming a novelist. Her first novel, The Comforters, was published in 1957. It featured several references to Catholicism and conversion to Catholicism, although its main theme revolved around a young woman who becomes aware that she is a character in a novel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) was more successful. Spark displayed originality of subject and tone, making extensive use of flashforwards and imagined conversations. Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate. In 2008, The Times ranked Spark as No. 8 in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.