Faulkner, William

The Marble Faun.  Boston: Four Seas Company, 1924

8vo (7 1/2 x 5 1/8 in.; 190 x 130 mm).  Publisher's mottled green boards, printed paper label on spine, printed label with vignette on front cover; a fine copy with minimal wear.  Original cream dust-jacket printed in green, pictorial vignette on front cover; spine ends and edges with some fraying, small hole in spine, some browning to spine and edges.  Original glassine wrapper; spine browned, spine and top edges chipped.  Half green morocco slipcase, spine gilt-lettered, green buckram sides and chemise.

A. B. Cole (presentation inscription)

Blotner, Faulkner: A Biography, 1, pp. 378–379; Massey 743; Peterson A1.1; Sensibar, Faulkner and Love, p. 442

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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First edition.  A very early presentation copy of Faulkner's scarce first book in remarkable condition.  This copy is inscribed twice.  On the front free endpaper, the inscription reads, "To A. B. Cole from Wm Faulkner"; the title-page inscription reads, "William Faulkner, Oxford Miss, 24 December 1924."

The official publication date of The Marble Faun was 15 December 1924.  By 16 December, Faulkner impatiently cabled Four Seas Book Company in Boston, saying "IF YOU HAVE NOT SHIPPED MY TEN FREE COPIES MARBLE FAUN AND IF CAN BE SHIPPED FOR GODS SAKE SHIP THEM AT ONCE AS THIS IS HOLDING UP MY SAILING EVERY DAY.  WILLIAM FAULKNER."  As things turned out, Faulkner would not sail for Europe until August 1925.  The books finally arrived on 19 December.  Twenty-five were also sent to Phil Stone and twelve to local bookseller Davidson and Wardlaw.  The present copy was inscribed by Faulkner on Christmas Eve, which would seem to indicate that A. B. Cole was someone well known to the author.  Cole does not appear in Blotner, Sensibar, or any other major works on Faulkner.  He could have been a customer of Davidson and Wardlow on the Square or someone who attended a book-signing party hosted by Phil Stone.

While publication of the book owes much to the efforts of Phil Stone, his 500-word preface is patronizing and full of backhanded compliments.  "These poems are primarily the poems of youth and a simple heart."  Stone charges his young friend with unsophistication, impatience, and immaturity.  It could be said that here Stone sews the seeds for the prickly relationship of the coming decades. 

A well-preserved presentation copy of Faulkner's first book, inscribed five days after copies of the book arrived in Oxford.