Steinbeck, John | Cannery Row, presented to the dedicatee

Steinbeck, John

Cannery Row. New York: The Viking Press, 1945

8vo. Half-title, inscribed by Steinbeck below the dedication; a few stray spots. Publisher’s canary-yellow cloth (second binding), printed in dark and light blue, top-stained blue, pictorial dust jacket; cloth slightly soiled, spine darkened, front inner hinge a bit tender, jacket a little worn with small tape repair to interior of fold. Housed in cloth slipcase and folding

First edition—the dedication copy, inscribed by Steinbeck to his friend Ed Ricketts: "With all the respect and | affection this book implies | John Steinbeck" (followed by small ink drawings of a fish and a bird).

Ricketts was an ecologist, marine biologist, and philosopher, who co-authored one of the most famous marine biology texts in the world, Between Pacific Tides. He collected and studied creatures along the Pacific coast of North and South America under his company name, Pacific Biological Laboratories, which was located on Monterey’s Cannery Row. This would become the setting for several of Steinbeck's works including, of course, Cannery Row itself. In the novel, Ricketts appears as "Doc," one of the narrative’s most central characters.

Steinbeck’s relationship with Ricketts influenced other works such as The Sea of Cortez (a collaboration with Ricketts), The Log from the Sea of Cortez, and Sweet Thursday, which revisits Doc and some of the other characters featured in Cannery Row. In his memoir "About Ed" (in The Log from the Sea of Cortez, 1951), Steinbeck wrote: "Knowing Ed Ricketts was instant. After the first moment I knew him, and for the next eighteen years I knew him better than I knew anyone..."

REFERENCE:

Goldstone & Payne A22b

PROVENANCE:

Ed Ricketts (presentation inscription; signature and date (“12/20/44”) to front free endpaper) — Christie’s East, 21 February 1996, lot 233