REINER, Anna. Five Destinies

REINER, Anna [GMEYNER, Anna]. Five Destinies. Trans from the German by Philip Owens. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1939. 8vo. First American edition. Publisher’s pale blue cloth lettered in dark blue and red to the spine, with decorations to the front board. In the original dust jacket designed by George Annand.

The Austrian-born author’s most famous novel, one of her several exile novels, originally published as Manja in the Netherlands. Published in the US here, and simultaneously in the UK as The Wall, all under the Reiner pseudonym. Her real name was Anna Gmeyner. The story itself follows the lives of five youngsters living through the torrid days of the Weimar Republic to the unsettling legal rise of the Nazi state. Though the children’s bond of friendship seems unbreakable, the cultural, social and religious differences of their parents ensure their ‘destinies’ are torn apart. The novel was acclaimed for its originality and its depiction of the ‘madhouse German state’ seen through the eyes of innocent children.

A near fine book, the cloth clean and the spine panel a trifle faded, but the corners and tips sharp, the topstain bright, the binding firm and square. The contents fine throughout without issue. The sumptuous dust jacket unclipped ($2.50 net) and complete, with some very shallow chips to the corners and tips, some light rubbing elsewhere, but a marvellous example overall. Scarce.