The Quiet American.

GREENE, Graham.

Item Number: 111561

New York: The Viking Press, 1956.

First American edition of Greene’s classic novel of exploration of love, innocence, and morality in Vietnam. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Sylvia Salmi from Graham Greene.” The recipient, Sylvia Salmii was a prominent and highly respected photographer. During the 1930s and 1940s, she took portraits of numerous great artists and intellectuals of the time, including Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco and Leon Trotsky. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing. Jacket design by Bill English.

Against the intrigue and violence of Vietnam during the French war with the Vietminh, Alden Pyle, an idealistic young American, is sent to promote democracy, as his friend, Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, looks on. Fowler’s mistress, a beautiful native girl, creates a catalyst for jealousy and competition between the men, and a cultural clash resulting in bloodshed and deep misgivings. Written in 1955 prior to the Vietnam conflict, The Quiet American foreshadows the events leading up to the Vietnam conflict. The Quiet American proves "urgent, mournful and unsparing there’s not another book quite like it" (Salon). Adapted to the screen in 1958, and again in 2002 starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser.