The Grapes of Wrath

New York: The Viking Press, (1939).

Price: $6,500.00

Hardcover. First edition. Fine in near fine dustwrapper with a short tear and a little rubbing. A nice, bright copy of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of an Oklahoma family's migration to California during the Depression. Basis for the John Ford film featuring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. Ford and supporting actress Jane Darwell won Academy Awards; Fonda was nominated but lost to Robert Donat in *Goodbye, Mr. Chips!* Steinbeck's masterpiece and literature's lasting testament to the Great Depression, it was singled-out in his citation for the Nobel Prize decades later.

Item #364654

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Item #364654 The Grapes of Wrath. John STEINBECK.
The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck
birth name: John Ernst Steinbeck
born: 2/27/1902
died: 12/20/1968
nationality: USA

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Biography

American novelist, best known for The Grapes of Wrath (1939), one of several naturalistic novels with proletarian themes that he wrote in the 1930s. These works, with their rich symbolic structures, effectively convey the mythopoetic and symbolic qualities of his characters. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. - Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literaturemore

Collecting tips:

Yikes! Collecting tips for John Steinbeck could fill a book, rather than a tiny box on our website, so we're going to give you the Cliff Notes version. His first book, Cup of Gold (1929) is exceptionally scarce in jacket, especially when the spine is relatively unfaded. The Grapes of Wrath (1939 - which better not have the "first edition" statement clipped from the bottom of the front flap) is a case where there exists lots of supply, but even more demand, so prices can vary wildly depending on fairly minor variations in condition. Of Mice and Men (1937) invariably has a jacket that is slightly shorter than the book, apparently issued thus by the publisher, so fret not, or at least fret less than you might otherwise if this is the case with your copy. Cannery Row (1945) has to have buff-colored boards; copies in bright yellow boards are later (although still marginally collectible). His last few books are relatively common, but are usually well read, so fine copies are worth pursuing.

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