John Steinbeck

First edition, first printing of the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning novel that made Steinbeck a household name.

• John Steinbeck (American).
• New York: The Viking Press, (1939).
• 620 pages.
• Original tan buckram binding with brown titles and line art, in original unclipped ($2.75) color pictorial dust jacket illustrated by Elmer Hader, yellow topstain, endpapers with illustration of the Battle Hymn of the Republic in yellow and orange.

"They was on'y one thing to do – ever – an' we done it."

Grapes Of Wrath has been generations of students' introduction to the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Steinbeck's extensive use of symbolism and Biblical motifs also makes it an excellent exercise in literary criticism for both high schoolers and hardcore academics, all pulled together with exceptionally lyrical prose.

This first edition, with its hyperbolic but prescient dust jacket editorial copy ("Perhaps Grapes Of Wrath is the greatest modern American novel... the greatest single creative work this country has ever produced"), captures the tipping point of Steinbeck's career.