Hugo von Hofmannsthal. 
 
Verlag Ed. Strache: 1920. Number 23 of a limited later printing. Hardcover. Octavo. Quarter leather over paper boards. Wear along the spine. Chipping on the top of the spine. Very minor bumping to the corners of the boards. Pages slightly cockled. 45 pages. Very good. In German. Signed. 
 
Translated as "Cavalry Story," this was the first piece of writing featured in the 2005 NYRB reissue of the work of the Austrian man of letters. It's a day in the life story of a cavalry officer that somehow leaves the impression of really being a dream. Hofmannsthal shows us he could have been Kafka before Kafka. He chose instead to be Hofmannsthal, and his signature beside the star on the title page will remind anyone who opens it. In German. 
 
"Von den Gipflen der fernen Berge stiegen Morgenwolken wie stille Rauchwolken wie stille Rauchwolken gegen den leuchtenden Himmel; der Mais stand regungslos, und zwischen Baumgruppen glänzten Landhäuser und Kirchen her.  (Early morning clouds climbed from the peaks of the distant mountains toward the shining sky like tranquil puffs of smoke; the corn stood motionless in the fields, and country houses and churches shone between strands of trees that seemed to have been washed.)"