Confessions of Another Young Man - Bravig Imbs 1936 - Henkle-Yewdale House, New York - First Edition ‘We liked Bravig, even though as Gertrude Stein said, his aim was to please’ – The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

The charming memoir of Bravig Imbs, an amiable, pleasant, and enthusiastic Norwegian-American writer who, upon their first encounter in 1926, became one of Gertrude Stein’s reverent admirers in the years between the wars. Here, he eagerly recounts the fleeting cavalcade of artists, writers, musicians, pseudo-intellectuals, and
poseurs who frequented Gertrude’s salon in Paris.

Unfortunately, despite his devotion – Imbs would often play Miss Stein her favourite tune, ‘
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine’ on the violin – Stein ended their friendship due to her aversion to childbirth, after Bravig brought his pregnant wife to a boarding house near Gertrude’s country home.
  ‘...serviceable as an extra young man, good at errands, and pleasing in the home’ – Composer Virgil Thomson’s recollection of Bravig Imbs during the five years his friendship with Gertrude Stein flourished.

Bravig Imbs was born in 1904 in Milwaukee to Norwegian-American parents. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he worked as a proof-reader for the International Edition of the
Chicago Tribune in Paris.

In Paris he befriended George Antheil, Pavel Tchelitchew, Rene Crevel, Georges Maratier, and later Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.
Imbs wrote novels, poems and a memoir, and played the harpsichord. He translated some poems by Georges Hugnet. He also co-wrote books with Bernard Fay and Andre Breton. In 1944, he worked as a radio announcer, under the pseudonym of '
Monsieur Bobby'. He was killed in a car accident shortly after.

References: Mellow,
Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein and Company 2003. Wilson B20. Simon, Gertrude Remembered 117.

Octavo (book size 20.4x15.8cm), pp. 302 [2]. Publisher’s cream cloth lettered to spine and upper board in blue-gilt, top edge tinted yellow. Dust jacket priced ‘$2.50’ to upper front flap, all corners with publisher’s decorative trim

Stated first edition in the firs state binding of cream cloth and blue gilt lettering, there was also a presumed remainder binding of medium grey-brown cloth, likely executed by the publishers on unsold sheets at a slightly later date, either for direct distribution or as a remainder.
  Condition: Fine in very good delicate dust jacket, archival tape repair to verso of both flap folds which are splitting, rubbing to corners and spine ends with small chips.   Ref: 110660   Price: HK$ 2,500