Garden City, Doubleday, 1946. A review copy of the first American edition of the first book she published under this name; her earlier books had been published under her married name, Helen Ferguson. She changed her name to Anna Kavan in 1939 and this collection of short stories, mostly focusing on depression and schizophrenia, was published in England in 1940. Kavan, because of a painful spinal condition, was a heroin addict for much of her adult life and used amphetamines extensively when she was writing. Her books as Anna Kavan chronicled the dark side of a troubled mind -- a style of writing completely distinct from her earlier novels, and the work for which she is most well-known and remembered. Anais Nin, in her book The Novel of the Future, called Asylum Piece "a classic equal to the work of Kafka." Fine in a near fine dust jacket, with publisher's review slip laid in. [#022966] SOLD