The Secret by Alba de Cespedes. Translated by Isabel Quigley. 1958 Simon & Schuster, first U.S. edition, 249 pages. De Cespedes was a Cuban-Italian author who has had a resurgence with the reissue of The Secret, under the title the Forbidden Notebook. According to her obituary in the Independent "Alba De Cespedes was one of the leaders of the feminist movement that transformed Italian literature and life during the course of the 20th century. She was born of an aristocratic Cuban father, ambassador to various European cities, and an Italian mother - a promisingly explosive combination that soon became apparent in her nonconformist behaviour at school and her later anti-Fascist activities, for which she was imprisoned by Mussolini in 1935 and 1943, like her friend the novelist and poet Cesare Pavese, who committed suicide in 1950."

Condition: Jacket in good condition, tears and browning, book in good condition, bumps to boards, owner name on end paper

"I was wrong to buy this notebook, terribly wrong."