Steinbeck John

Steinbeck John — marelibri

The Moon Is Down.

1942rif. 152281New York: The Viking Press 1942. First edition of the Nobel Prize-winning author’s classic work. Octavo bound in full morocco by the Harcourt Bindery with gilt titles and ruling to the spine in five compartments within raised gilt bands gilt ruling to the front and rear panels gilt inner dentelles stamp-signed by the Harcourt Bindery marbled endpapers all edges gilt illustrated. Founded over a century ago in 1900 the Harcourt Bindery is the oldest and largest traditional bindery in America exclusively devoted to fine traditional leather bookbinding by hand. Harcourt Bindery uses 22 karat genuine gold leaf top grades of Nigerian moroccos and hand marbled papers from craftsmen representing seven countries. In fine condition. In 1941 Steinbeck met “with officials of the Foreign Information Service a newly formed unit of what would soon become the Office of Strategic Services to discuss the future of American counterpropaganda efforts. The Moon Is Down begun later the same month had its origins in Steinbeck’s long-standing desire to contribute to these efforts… Steinbeck submitted a first finished draft of The Moon Is Down originally written as a play called ‘The New Order’ and set in a mid-sized town in the United States to agency officials; they turned it down concerned that the prospect of an occupied America might lower morale. Early in December Steinbeck began revising the work shifting the setting to a generic northern Europe and recasting the play as a novel; he sent his revised draft to Pascal Covici his editor at Viking later in December. The Moon Is Down as a novel appeared in book form in March 1942. A stage version opened on Broadway on April 9 1942 and was published by Dramatists Play Service in New York later in the same year” Library of America. Second issue with the Haddon Craftsmen name on the copyright page and no period between "talk" and "this" on p. 112 line 11 The Viking Press hardcover

Raptis Rare Books · Stati Uniti1250,00 USD≈ 1118,87 €

Steinbeck, John [Otis Guernsey Jr]Biblio.com

The Wayward Bus.

1947rif. 152649New York: The Viking Press 1947. First edition of this classic work by the Nobel Prize-winning writer a novel about a busload of lost souls on the back roads of California. Octavo original cloth. With a full page inscription by Steinbeck on the front free endpaper written in Spanish with a closing line in Latin the inscription reads in translation “The first title of this book was El Camión Vacilador. It is very difficult to translate this title. It means: we are puppets and we are hoping! I hope! John Steinbeck. Pray for us now and in the hour of our death. J.S.” This inscription is a remarkable piece of Steinbeck bibliographic history. The Wayward Bus was John Steinbeck's first novel following his Nobel Prize-era masterworks a sprawling allegorical narrative set aboard a broken-down bus carrying a cross-section of American travelers through the California backcountry that Steinbeck conceived as a modern American equivalent of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The inscription in this copy reveals that Steinbeck's original preferred title for the novel was El Camión Vacilador a Spanish phrase that he himself acknowledges is extremely difficult to translate precisely explaining in his own hand that it means something along the lines of "we are uncertain ones" or "we are waverers" — a concept captured in the wavering hesitating lurching motion of the bus itself as a metaphor for the moral and existential uncertainty of its passengers. The choice of a Spanish title reflects Steinbeck's deep and lifelong immersion in the culture and language of California's Mexican and Mexican-American communities a preoccupation that had informed Tortilla Flat 1935 and Cannery Row 1945 and that gave his California fiction much of its distinctive texture and voice. That Viking Press elected the more commercially accessible English title The Wayward Bus over Steinbeck's preferred Spanish original is a small but revealing episode in the history of American publishing and the author's wry inscription — closing with the Latin ora pro nobis nunc et in hora mortis "pray for us now and in the hour of our death" — suggests a characteristically mordant Steinbeck humor about the fate of titles at the hands of publishers From the library of Otis L. Guernsey Jr. 1918-2001 the distinguished American drama and film critic and for more than three decades editor of the Best Plays theatre yearbook. Guernsey spent nineteen years at the New York Herald Tribune rising from copy boy to become the paper’s film and drama critic and arts editor before taking over the Best Plays series in 1964 and editing some thirty-six annual volumes an unrivaled record of the American stage. As one of the foremost theatre critics of his generation he moved in the same New York literary and theatrical world in which Steinbeck whose novels and plays were mainstays of stage and screen loomed so large. The Wayward Bus itself would reach the screen in 1957. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Robert Hallock. A unique example regarding the history of this book from the Steinbeck's point of view. In his first novel to follow the enormous success of The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck’s vision comes wonderfully to life in this imaginative and unsentimental chronicle of a bus traveling California’s back roads transporting the lost and the lonely the good and the greedy the stupid and the scheming the beautiful and the vicious away from their shattered dreams and possibly toward the promise of the future. Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath in 1940 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. A Book-of-the-Month Club selection and best seller on its appearance The Wayward Bus was the basis for the 1957 film starring Jayne Mansfield Joan Collins Dan Dailey and Rick Jason. The Viking Press hardcover

Raptis Rare Books · Stati Uniti15.000,00 USD≈ 13.426,43 €

Steinbeck, John [Otis L Guernsey Jr]Biblio.com

Of Mice and Men: A Play in Three Acts.

1937rif. 152672New York: Covici-Friede 1937. First edition of the dramatic version of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men wittily inscribed by him. Octavo original publisher's cloth. Lengthily signed by the author and also initialed on the half-title “by an author in 1 Act. John Steinbeck a walking mouse who dances from man to mouse J.S.” Steinbeck adapted his celebrated 1937 novel for the stage the same year and the play opened on Broadway that November. From the library of Otis L. Guernsey Jr. 1918-2001 the distinguished American drama and film critic and for more than three decades editor of the Best Plays theatre yearbook. Guernsey spent nineteen years at the New York Herald Tribune rising from copy boy to become the paper’s film and drama critic and arts editor before taking over the Best Plays series in 1964 and editing some thirty-six annual volumes an unrivaled record of the American stage. As one of the foremost theatre critics of his generation he moved in the same New York literary and theatrical world in which Steinbeck whose novels and plays were mainstays of stage and screen loomed so large. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco and folding chemise slipcase. A wonderful signed and playfully inscribed copy. Of Mice and Men the tragic story of the migrant ranch hands George and the gentle giant Lennie and their doomed dream of a place of their own is among the most widely read and taught works in American literature. John Steinbeck adapted his 1937 novel into a play the same year and the stage version won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for the 1937-1938 season. Steinbeck 1902-1968 went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath in 1940 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962 and Of Mice and Men has been filmed several times notably in 1939 with Lon Chaney Jr. and Burgess Meredith and in 1992 with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich. Covici-Friede hardcover

Raptis Rare Books · Stati Uniti15.000,00 USD≈ 13.426,43 €

Steinbeck John

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