The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1st American Edition; Ex Libris Arthur A. Cohen)

First American edition of Giorgio Bassani’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, published in 1965 by Atheneum. 8vo (5.75” x 8.5”), hardcover with dust jacket, 293 pages. A distinguished association copy from the library of author, publisher, theologian, and rare book gallerist Arthur A. Cohen, bearing the modernist bookplate designed by his wife Elaine Lustig Cohen on the front pastedown. Laid in is an invitation from the Italian Cultural Institute, New York, announcing an appearance by Giorgio Bassani at its Park Avenue headquarters. Bassani's masterwork of memory, loss, and Jewish life in Fascist Italy was first published in Italian in 1962 and later adapted into Vittorio De Sica's Academy Award-winning film. The provenance is especially resonant given Cohen's lifelong engagement with Jewish history, Holocaust memory, and postwar Jewish identity. Bumping to card. Light bumping and rubbing to dj, with creasing to front flap. Mild damp staining and moderate toning to front cover. A desirable literary association copy linking one of the twentieth century's major Jewish novels with one of America's most important Jewish intellectuals and booksellers.