Robert Hazel. Stated first edition. New York: World Publishing Company, 1953. Price-clipped dust jacket has wear and foxing and is in Very Good condition. The hardcover has former owner signature on flyleaf, otherwise, no markings or other writing found in the book, 263 pp.
Hazel's debut novel, The Lost Year, is a powerful postwar novel exploring the emotional and existential dislocation of a returning soldier grappling with identity, alienation, and the reshaping of his life after World War II. Robert Hazel brings poetic precision to the narrative, reflecting a man’s internal landscape as it collides with the fractured reality of mid-20th-century America. The novel weaves themes of memory, regret, and moral uncertainty into a story of quiet intensity.
Hazel, a poet and mentor to writers like Wendell Berry and Bobbie Ann Mason, infused his fiction with deep lyrical insight—The Lost Year stands as a compelling entry in the canon of early postwar American literature.
