High Diver, Signed Presentation by Michael Wishart
[Signed Presentation] Wishart, Michael. High Diver. First Edition. 1977. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Book is warmly inscribed in colorful felt-tip pen, “For Mickey, in loving memory of our starrier days and our sunnier nights, from Michael, Brighton, Christmas 1982.”
Michael Wishart took the art world by storm with his 1956 show at the Redfern Gallery. The art critic David Sylvester praised Wishart for his “shamelessly romantic and deeply sophisticated” sensibility. Those two qualities are usually paradoxical, but when they aren’t, it is magic. They also animate this memoir, as much about ill-fated love affairs as it is about the art world. At one end stands Denham Fouts, the doomed courtesan who inspired characters in the works of Vidal, Capote, and Isherwood. At the other is the young Nicky Haslam, who would go on to become one of London’s most celebrated decorators and memoirists. Between them lies an extraordinary cast of artists, patrons, and social adventurers.
“The following evening, at dusk, we were awoken by Denham’s maid, who appeared with a tray, on which were a bowl of cereals, brioches, coffee, calvados and the Herald Tribune. Denham [Fouts] said, ‘I detest the morning.’ (It was 6.00 pm.)”
--Michael Wishart