Our First Edition, inscribed copy of Anya Seton’s runaway bestseller Dragonwyck was published in 1944 and was made two years later into a major motion picture starring Gene Tierney and Vincent Price. Seton (1904-1990) grew up in a well-to-do family in the Cos Cob/Greenwich, CT, area. She was one of the most popular authors of her day, making her reputation on carefully crafted historical novels. Dragonwyck is set in the Hudson River Valley of the 1840s It is a gothic tale of the aristocratic Van Ryn family set against the feudal “patroon” system of land ownership established by the first Dutch settlers and the historical background of New York’s Astor Place Riots and the Anti-Rent Wars. Seton deftly weaves class strife with the unfolding family mystery centered on the great house and estate called “Dragonwyck.” There is no way to verify that the “gay Cole” to whom Seton inscribes the book is Cole Porter, but the two traveled in the same circles and must have appreciated the one other's creative gifts at a moment of shared brio in American literature, film and theater. Condition: Book, fine with even yellowing, Dust Jacket fine, priced clipped. Comes in Brodart cover. Dimensions: 5.5" x 8" x 1.5".