The Grapes of Wrath
New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1940.
Limited edition in two volumes, #517 of 1146 copies. Signed by the illustrator on the colophon. xxii, [2], 284; 285-559, [1] pp. Bound in publisher's "grass cloth" stamped in brown over quarter rawhide lettered in silver, all edges stained yellow, pictorial endpapers. Very light soiling to textblock edges, else Fine. Binding very square and tight; spines never opened. Housed in the original brown paper-covered slipcase, moderately chipped and worn.
A beautiful unread set, made with great care. Two publisher's slips laid in explain that the book's binding was designed to inspire "emotional sympathy" in the reader before he had even cracked it open:
"The 'grass cloth' should, if the intention of the designer is realized, put the prospective reader in mind of of the parched, sun-baked grass of the Dust Bowl. Silver is used for the stamping, rather than gold, because this is a novel about people in 'the silver country.' And rawhide was planned for the backs of the volumes because it is a leather which might very well have come from an Oklahoman steer."
The book's contents are enhanced with duotone lithographs by Thomas Hart Benton, a painter and muralist in the vanguard of the Regionalist art movement. Benton was also commissioned to create lithographs to help promote the critically acclaimed film adaption that appeared the same year; his style of populist realism was acknowledged to be a perfect match for Steinbeck's.
Price: $2,000