Inscribed to Mishima's First Translator Shortly Before His Suicide
Sun & Steel
Publication: Palo Alto: Kodansha International, 1970. First Edition.
Notes: The first English translation of one of Mishima's last and most personal books, inscribed to the translator of his first novel in English just weeks before his suicide.
Sun & Steel is part memoir and part meditation on physical strength. The book also delves into Mishima's lifelong questioning about the perfect death; he would commit ritual suicide just weeks after this translation was published.
According to biographer John Nathan, "In Sun and Steel, Mishima accounted for his actions past and future more persuasively than anywhere else... The context was his knowledge that he would obtain the incontrovertible proof of existence he required to feel alive and real only in the moment of death" (p. 237, Da Capo edition).
104 pages. First published in Japanese in 1968. This is the first English translation, by John Bester.
Edition + Condition: First English-language edition, issue for Japan (first edition stated). A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with a Japanese-language bellyband promoting and the original acetate jacket protector. A price sticker in yen is mounted to the front flap just below the dollar price, as issued.
This copy is inscribed to Meredith Weatherby, who translated The Sound of Waves, Mishima's first novel published in English. The inscription reads, "M.ウェザビー様 三島由紀夫" [M[r]. Wezabi-sama, Mishima Yukio]. The suffix "-sama" is used in place of the more common "-san" when addressing a person of high status. Your cataloguer has seen a review slip for this book, giving the publication date as September 15, 1970. Mishima died on November 25. Compared to Mishima's other books, this one is quite scarce signed and the inscription to the translator responsible for bringing Mishima to the English-speaking world puts this at the forefront of all Mishima association copies.
Nathan, in his biography of Mishima, writes, "The translator Meredith Weatherby was one of a number of army intelligence officers with the occupation who settled in Japan. He came to know Mishima well in the early fifties... His first translation was not The Sound of Waves but Confessions of a Mask, which he had completed as early as 1954. The Sound of Waves was published first because Knopf was reluctant to introduce Mishima to the West with a 'homosexual novel'" (p. 132n).
Item No: #52806
Price: $7,500