Steinbeck, John:

$8,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

THE GRAPES OF WRATH. First edition, first printing, of Steinbeck's standout novel of the 1930s dust bowl struggle of the Joad family. It won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and was perhaps the fundamental reason for Steinbeck's eventual receipt of the 1962 Nobel Prize for Literature, whereupon it was referred to as an "epic chronicle." The book was among the best-selling novels of 1939 and elicited strong sentiments on both sides of the issue for its depiction of the bleak prospects for farmers and workers during the preceding decade. The Grapes of Wrath was adapted to the screen in 1940, based on Nunnally Johnson's superior screenplay, directed by John Ford, and starring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, et al. Ford and Darwell won Oscars as Director and Best Supporting Actress. Goldstone & Payne record that the first printing consisted of 50,000 copies and by the end of the first year following publication 430,000 copies had been printed. Ordinary copies have always been available, and apart from a couple of remainders of copies turned up in the context of retired booksellers' inventories (notably one in Austin, Texas, in 1978) copies of the first printing in fine condition remain the exception.

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