Prater Violet, Christopher Isherwood. First Edition.

Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was an English-American writer. He's probably best known for his 1964 novel A Single Man, which was adapted into the award-winning 2009 film of the same name, directed by Tom Ford and starring Colin Firth. As an interesting aside, in the 1940s his buddy Aldous Huxley introduced him to Hindu Swami Prabhavananda. He became a committed Vedantist, visiting Prabhavananda every Wednesday for the next 35 years and working with him on a translation of the Bhagavad Gita. In fact, during the years 1939-1945 Isherwood was so immersed in his study of the Vedas that he was unable to write any fiction.

Prater Violet is Isherwood's thirteenth published work, released in 1945. It is a semi-autobiographical account of Isherwood's foray into film-making, revolving around the creation of the eponymously titled film. I love the cover art on this one. This is the first British edition, published in 1946:

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