Waiting for Nothing
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1935.
First edition, advance issue. Abbreviated, containing an introduction comprised of the front flap text (likening Kromer to Hemingway) followed by four excerpts from the novel. [48] pp. Bound in publisher's taupe cloth lettered in red, red topstain. Near Fine with light wear and a tiny stain to crown, faint foxing to edges. In the dust jacket for the trade edition, distinctively folded to fit this copy; unclipped ($2.00), chipped head with a stain to verso there, moderate edge wear, toning along rear joint, a vertical crease along rear flap; Very Good+. A quintessential novel of the Great Depression, and a masterpiece of understated desperation, written by a West Virginia drifter who famously scribbled his story down on scrap paper scrounged on the streets, in boxcars, and in hobo jungles. The novel was highly praised upon publication, but Kromer never mustered another book-length work; he died, tubercular and forgotten, in a West Virginia sanatorium. The novel was essentially "lost" until its republication by the University of Georgia Press in the 1980s. Scarce as an advance issue in the dust jacket.
Price: $2,500.00