A Separate Peace.

KNOWLES, John.

Item Number: 93655

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1960.

First edition of Knowles’ award-winning first novel, a “modern classic” often compared to J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, in first-issue dust jacket. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by John Knowles on the front free endpaper.  A review copy with the slip laid in, very good in an excellent first-issue dust jacket. Jacket design by The Strimbans.

"A Separate Peace endures because it is beautifully written and a deft study of character What sets it apart is a paradoxical quality of immediacy and timelessness" (New York Times). It remains a "modern classic for its sensitive evocation of adolescent conflict… The novel's enduring appeal also stems from its layered richness. It is a tale of innocence and evil, and an exploration of opposing selves" (Los Angeles Times). Knowles tells the story of the competitive friendship of two students at a New England preparatory school during WWII, a school closely based on Phillips Exeter Academy, which he attended. Praised on publication, his debut novel "won the William Faulkner Foundation Award and the Rosenthal Award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and soon came to be compared to classics like Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and Lord of the Flies by William Golding" (New York Times). Basis for the 1972 film directed by Larry Peerce and starring Parker Stevenson.