1939 Steinbeck TRUE 1ST/1ST (1st Printing) GRAPES OF WRATH Pulitzer VIKING
Item History & Price
“...and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
1939/1st/TRUE April, 1939 1st Printing/Handsome condition. PULITZER.
Authentic 1st Printing... in FACSIMILE $2.75 DJ W/"First Edition" slug present lower front flap.&nbs...p; ALL POINTS, Book and DJ.
Very nice copy of one of the great novels of American literature. Clean, fresh, square, etc. Textblock is excellent. Facsimile DJ is Very Fine.
John Steinbeck's
The Grapes of Wrath.
JOHN STEINBECK. Beloved, highly-acclaimed author who championed the people displaced and oppressed by the social, economic and political turmoil of the times. An author whose popularity continues to ascend, for is Steinbeck is the American Psyche of this age; if F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the American Rich, it was Steinbeck who did the Ordinary Man; if Hemingway about Emotional Brawn, then it was Steinbeck about emotional center. Over the course of his too-short life, Steinbeck produced over 20 works of fiction and non-fiction (including such classic as OF MICE AND MEN; WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT; etc.). His writing entertainingly, yet boldly... Migrant and cannery workers, strikers, immigrants and soldiers, etc., all populate Steinbeck's landscape... from Oklahoma to California to Europe to New England. In treating his subjects, he concerned himself with the theme of the strength and nobility of the human spirit... which speaks as much to us today as it did to those who lived in Steinbeck's era.
JOHN STEINBECK.
The Grapes of Wrath. FIRST EDITION/FIRST PRINTING POINTS:
“FIRST PUBLISHED IN APRIL 1939″ on copyright page;No mention of later printings;Dust jacket (facsimile) has $2.75 price in top corner and stated SLUG "first edition" in bottom corner of front flap;"Battle Hymn of the Republic" printed on endpapers (see scan);ALL OTHER POINTS. Book is of correct weight; dimension; text; publisher; etc.; Facsimile DJ w/all points, as well.
About the book...
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic The Grapes of Wrath of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.
Handsome, true 1st printing.
Increasingly SCARCE to the market!
Condition and other details...
TRUE 1st/1st. First printing. NICE condition. First edition, with "First published in April 1939" on copyright page w/no additional printings. Viking, New York, 1939. 1st Printing FACSIMILE DJ designed by Elmer Hader ("First Edition" at base of front flap, and $2.75 at upper corner of front flap). 8vo - approx 6 x 8 1/2". Fully bound original publisher beige cloth... with reddish-brown lettering and fine drawings. Beige top stain (nice). "Battle Hymn of the Republic" printed on endpapers (some browning). Thick: 619pp; textblock EXCELLENT: Light toning; very sporadic light browning. Book is very clean; square; straight; tight... leaves approach Fine. Boards with light spotting (shown); minimal spine lean; 3/4" closed -- reflects older glue repair -- tear, upper front gutter; very light shelf-wear. Facsimile DJ Very Fine. Ref. overall... Goldstone & Payne A12a.
An American classic!
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