Steinbeck, John | The Grapes of Wrath, first edition

Steinbeck, John

The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Viking Press, 1939

8vo. Original cloth in dustjacket with illustration by Elmer Stanley Hader; a lovely copy, unfaded and unrubbed with only the slightest of faint creasing at very top of spine panel. 

First edition of Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. “And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.” 

When one considers the great American novels, The Grapes of Wrath is often ranked alongside the like of The Great Gatsby and Moby-Dick. Steinbeck's now-iconic novel was read widely upon its initial publication, and its influence remains prevalent, inspiring numerous filmmakers and musicians, including John Ford, Steven Spielberg, Woody Guthrie, Pink Floyd, and Bruce Springsteen. When Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, it was The Grapes of Wrath that the committee cited for evidence of his achievement.

"The Grapes of Wrath may well be the most thoroughly discussed novel — in criticism, reviews, and college classrooms — of 20th century American literature." John Timmerman.

REFERENCE:

Goldstone & Payne A12a