THE GRAPES OF WRATH

New York: The Viking Press, 1939. FIRST EDITION, First Printing, with the words "First Published in April 1939" printed on the copyright page. 202 x 130 mm. (7 7/8 x 5 1/4"). 3 p.l., 619 pp.
Attractive red morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe for Asprey (stamp-signed in gilt on front and rear turn-ins), covers with single gilt rule, raised bands, gilt ruled compartments, gilt lettering, all edges gilt. Goldstone-Payne A12.a. ◆Small, unobtrusive stains at spine tail, half title and one text leaf each with a tiny repair along top edge, a half dozen insignificant marginal stains, but an extremely appealing copy showing only the most negligible signs of use.

Published when America was still deep in the Great Depression, "The Grapes of Wrath" is a novel detailing the heartbreak of rural dispossession and a work that, in the words of ANB, "captured the decade's angst as well as the nation's legacy of fierce individualism, visionary prosperity, and determined westward movement." In citing it as one of the "Books that Shaped America," the Library of Congress noted, "Few novels can claim that their message led to actual legislation, but 'The Grapes of Wrath' did just that. Its story of the travails of Oklahoma migrants . . . ignited a movement in Congress to pass laws benefiting farmworkers. When Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962, the committee specifically cited this novel as one of the main reasons for the award." The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and was printed in a large press run, making it readily available at the time and ever since. The present volume, attractively bound in full morocco, is an affordable alternative to copies of the first edition in the original binding and dust jacket, which sell for prices many times the one we're asking here..