Angel Arms - By Kenneth Fearing by FEARING, KENNETH - 1929

New York: Coward McCann, 1929. First Edition, First Printing. Signed and inscribed by Kenneth Fearing. “To Eltove, Cordially and - educationally? K.F.” With a number of corrections, deletions, and additions apparently by Fearing both in pencil and in ink. The book was later owned by musician Artie Shaw and is signed by him in ink on the front pastedown and has his bookplate. The book is hardbound in paper covered boards. The spine covering became detached at some point, and Artie Shaw wrote the book’s title in ink on the exposed fabric mesh of the spine. The boards have rubbing at the extremities, else very good. Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (1910 - 2004), better known as Artie Shaw, started out his career in music at thirteen as a saxophone player and switched to the clarinet at sixteen. He gained experience and skill while on the road at a young age which lead to steady work in the 30s as a session musician and performing with various bands and orchestras and on radio. His first critical acclaim came with his performance of “Interlude in B-flat" at a swing concert at the Imperial Theater in New York in 1935. And during the swing era, Shaw's big band enjoyed such enduring hits like Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" and Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust," "Back Bay Shuffle,” "Moonglow,” "Rosalie," "Frenesi," and "Summit Ridge Drive." Throughout his career he worked with many of the great jazz musicians and vocalists of his day, including Helen Forrest, Mel Torme, drummers Buddy Rich and Dave Tough, guitarists Barney Kessel, Jimmy Raney, and Tal Farlow and trombonist-arranger Ray Conniff. A charismatic and complicated man, Shaw was married eight times, most notably to actresses Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Doris Dowling, and Evelyn Keyes, Betty Kern, the daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern, and ‘Forever Amber’ author Kathleen Winsor. In 2004, he was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his musical career and accomplishments, he is the author of an autobiography, ‘The Trouble With Cinderella: An Outline of Identity,’ three short novels; ‘I Love You, I Hate You, Drop Dead!,’ a collection of short stories, ‘The Best of Intentions and Other Stories,’ and an autobiographical novel titled ‘The Education of Albie Snow,’ which, sadly never made it to publication.