339

John O'Hara (1905-1970)

Butterfield 8.

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1935.
First edition, octavo; bound in full black morocco, gilt-ruled and lettered, with gilt-stamped floral turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt; including the original pictorial dust jacket bound-in at rear; 7 7/8 x 5 1/8 in. 

O'Hara's second novel is the basis for the 1960 film starring Elizabeth Taylor for which she won her first Academy Award. The plot was inspired by the life of Starr Faithfull, a socialite flapper who died in a mysterious drowning incident in 1931. Her death was a tabloid sensation because of her social status, beauty, and child sexual abuse allegations that implicated the wealthy politician Andrew James Peters. In multiple articles on the event, Time magazine called Faithfull's tragic passing a "sexy death mystery."

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