Go Down, Moses; and Other Stories

New York: Random House, 1942 First edition, first printing. Publisher's black cloth, ruled in red, lettered in gilt; in the original first issue pictorial dust jacket, with eight titles beginning with "Storm" to the rear panel, mountain illustrations to the front panel and spine. Very good with light spotting to front board, heavy fading to gilt on spine, front board gilt bright, hint of fraying to foot of spine, and previous bookseller's small label to rear pastedown; very good price-clipped dust jacket with light edgewear including a small chip to top of rear panel, light chipping to spine ends, a bit of soiling to rear panel, and minor tape reinforcement to jacket verso. Overall, a very good and pleasing copy. Petersen A23.2b. Go Down Moses is a collection of seven short stories relating to themes of nature, identity, and race relations in the American South. Like many of his other works, these stories are set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi, based on Faulkner's childhood experiences in Oxford. While they can all be read independently of one another, each story features the same overall cast of characters and together they span almost a century, beginning right before the Civil War in 1859 and ending with World War II in 1940. Specifically, this volume includes "Was," "The Fire and the Hearth," "Pantaloon in Black," "The Old People," "The Bear," "Delta Autumn," and "Go Down, Moses." Because of the stories' natural cohesion, Go Down Moses was subsequently published as a complete (albeit somewhat fragmented), epistolary novel without the half-title "And Other Stories." The title Go Down, Moses is taken from the African American spiritual of the same name, which draws parallels between plights of enslaved African Americans at the hands of white Americans and the Biblical Egyptian enslavement of the Israelites in the Old Testament.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Dust Jacket Included.