Mircea Eliade. 
 
Sheed & Ward: 1961. First American edition. Hardcover in a jacket. Octavo. Chipping, a few tears, and fading along the top of the jacket as well as a little warping. Scuffing along bottom of the jacket. Corners of the boards bumped, and there is slight bumping on the crown and heel of the spine. Foxing on the top edge of the text block. Trace soiling on the attached endpapers. 189 pages. Very good. 
 
What's beyond history and reason is not just the animal; it's image-making, our central relationship to the Cosmos. That's the thesis inside this first American edition (with a better jacket design than the British first), a 190 page gateway into the great and prolific Mircea Eliade's project. 
 
"Images, symbols, and myths are not irresponsible creations of the psyche; they respond to a need and fulfill a function, that of bringing to light the most hidden modalities of being."