85
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MAX GINSBURG.
“A Separate Peace.”
Oil on canvas. 1016x610mm; 40x24 inches. Signed lower left. Original cover art for the
1982 Bantam Books edition of John Knowles’s A Separate Peace. NewYork, 1981-82.
[10,000/15,000]
THE ORIGINAL ARTWORK FOR THE BESTSELLING EDITION OF KNOWLES
’
S ICONIC COMING
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OF
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AGE NOVEL
read by millions of American high school students.The story of the strained friendship
and tragic event between two private school boys just as the country descends into World War II
poignantly captured the emotions and maturity of young adults. No edition of the book is more etched
in most people’s memories as that bearing Ginsburg’s haunting image of main character, Gene, stand-
ing within an arch near a bare tree by the river’s edge that holds ghostly figures of his and Phineas’s
earlier, innocent selves climbing and jumping into the water, while their boarding school, Devon, glows
in autumnal glory in the background.
Time Entertainment listed A Separate Peace in their top 10 classic texts that dominated high school
reading lists for decades. Ginsburg used his son’s friend as a model for both boys, then also a boarding
school student and the same age as the characters.
