‎"DITLEVSEN, TOVE.‎
‎Pigesind. - [PRESENTATION-COPY OF DITLEVSEN'S DEBUT PUBLICATION TO HER LAST PARTNER]‎

‎København, Rasmus Naver, 1939. Uncut in the original printed wrappers illustrated by Arne Ungermann. With Ditlevsen's presentation inscription to her husband Knud Mogensen to front free end paper: ""Tove Ditlevsen / Til min kære Knud / fra din mærkelige Tove, / som holder af dig pa sin egen snørklede måde / 29-11-72 (Pas på den ikke bliver stjålet)"" (i.e. English: Tove Ditlevsen / To my dear Knud / from your strange Tove, / who loves you in her own crooked way / 29-11-72 (Be careful it doesn’t get stolen)""). Light wear and a few stains to wrappers. Spine with a bit of loss of paper and upper front hinge split. Internally very nice and clean. 63 pp.‎

Reference : 62804

‎The rare first edition, here inscribed by Ditlevsen more than thirty years later to her last companion, Knud Mogensen, of Ditlevsen’s seminal debut publication. Allegedly, she only gave away ten presentation copies of her debut publication, making them of the utmost scarcity. The personal and slightly ironic tone of the inscription reflects the complex relationship between Ditlevsen and Mogensen whom she met through a personal ad after her divorce from Victor Andreasen. In a letter to her publisher’s Ditlevsen wrote: “Jeg kan jo ikke være alene, og nu er han der nu engang. Sød og hjælpsom er han, men sådan virkelig tale med ham, kan jeg ikke.” (Ditlevesen’s collection of letters “Kærlig Hilsen, Tove”, p. 87). (i.e. English: “I cannot be alone and now he is here. He is sweet and helpful, but truly converse with him I cannot.”). The two lived together during the final years of her life, a period marked by both tenderness and turmoil, and which found literary expression in her Letters to Knud Mogensen (10 breve til Knud Mogensen, posthumously published 1978). Ditlevsen’s not so loving “Jeg kan jo ikke være alene, og nu er han der nu engang. Sød og hjælpsom er han, men sådan virkelig tale med ham, kan jeg ikke.” (“I cannot be alone and now he is here. He is sweet and helpful, but truly to converse with him I cannot.”) (Ditlevesen’s collection of letter “Kærlig Hilsen, Tove”, p. 87) “Pigesind” consists in 32 poems that range widely from the broodingly sad, over deeply unhappy to the almost cheerful. They represent the mind of a young girl and what goes on in it, a young girl whose life was to be marked by anxiety, drug addiction, and repeated suicide attempts. Ditlevsen is considered one of the most important and unique voices in twentieth-century Danish literature and many of the themes she touches upon ring a universal bell. Her works are particularly valuable as they dramatize the consequences of locking women into marriage, into the roles of wife and mother. Ditlevsen's writing has had a lasting impact upon Danish literature, and her works continue to be read and studied for their candid and emotional exploration of the human condition. Her life and writing remain highly important subject matters for those interested in Scandinavian literature and the confessional literary tradition. In 2021, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian elected Tove Ditlevesen's recently translated ""The Copenhagen Trilogy” as book of the year and celebrated Ditlevsen as one of the most important authors in 20th century literature.‎