Hermann Hesse
Peter Camenzind.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969.First US printing of author's first novel. Volume, measuring approximately 6" x 8.75", is bound in red cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine and author's initials stamped in gold on front cover. Binding is firm. Previous owner's annotations (name, date, etc.) appear in upper outside corner of front pastedown. Interior is otherwise clean and bright. Dust jacket has closed tear at top edge of rear cover, with photo of author on rear cover over caption reading "Hermann Hesse in 1903".  Dust jacket is preserved in mylar cover. 201 pages. Translated by Michael Roloff. First published in Germany on 1904, this is Hesse's first novel. A story of adolescence and early manhood, with the protagonist Peter Camenzind leaving his Swiss mountain village and takes to the road to Italy where he feels at home in a village there in the country of his idol, St. Francis of Assisi. He makes a friend who is killed, falls in love three times, goes to Paris and lives a life of dissipation as he turns to liquor to escape the pain of living. He finally finds peace of mind caring for Boppi, a helpless cripple. He eventually returns to his village where he was born. Hesse's principal themes are man's rootedness in nature and the ideal of serving man in the spirit of St. Francis. In this novel, Camenzind's self-love and his love of man coalesce, and so his restless soul finds inner tranquility.