Thomas Mann
The Story of a Novel: The Genesis of  "Doctor Faustus."
Alfred A. Knopf, 1961. First US edition. Translation by H. T. Lowe-Porter of "Die Entstehung des Doktor Faustus: Der Roman eines Romans"" (S. Fischer Verlag, 1949). 242 pages plus 9 pages of index.
Volume, measuring approximately 6" x 8.25", is bound in gilt-lettered black cloth spine and red paper-covered boards, with author's initials and lettering in gold stamped on front cover. Book shows very light shelfwear. Binding is sound. Interior is clean and bright. Dust jacket, with price of $4.00 on front flap, shows light shelfwear, with wear visible at top/bottom of spine panel. and mild creasing to lower outside corner of front panel. Jacket design is by George Salter.
"In the beginning Mann wanted simply to tell the story of how he came to write a Faust novel and how, under the influence of contemplation and reading and "the pressure and tumult of outer events," it became the celebrated book we know. But as so often happened with Mann, the book he wrote was quite different from the book he planned. and in the end "The Story of a Novel" became no less than an account of the challenge, the delights, and torments of the creative process itself -- a unique answer to the question readers of masterpieces have never tired of asking: "How did he do it?""