HAYDN, Hiram

The Time Is Noon

New York: Crown Publishers, 1948. First Edition. First printing. Octavo. Cloth hardcover; dustjacket; 561pp. Tight, straight and unmarked copy, Near Fine. In the original dustwrapper, unclipped (priced $3.50 on front flap), rubbed at margins and slightly sunned on spine; Very Good.

Haydn's third novel, an epic set in the American South during the last spasms of the Twenties and the Crash of 1929. In a glitteringly dismissive review in Commentary, Elizabeth Hardwick wrote of The Time Is Noon: "...a weary novel whose earnest mediocrity makes one weak with melancholy....it wants, in its optimistic, endless fashion, to be good, honest, and profound, to say something honorable and significant. But it suffers from much love and little policy, for Haydn has very little to say and yet he has written a very long book" ("The Progressive Jew as Hero," in Commentary, May 1948). Other critics were more welcoming, or at least less savage, but it is probably no accident that Haydn didn't publish another novel for fifteen years. He instead made his mark in the world of publishing, serving as editor for a number of major houses including Crown, Random House, and Bobbs-Merrill before founding Atheneum in 1959. HANNA 1640. POWELL (North Carolina Fiction) 250.

Price: $50.00

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