Books

New York: Jonathan Cape: Harrison Smith, 1930. Near fine in near fine jacket.. First edition, second issue of Faulkner's best novel, with the original dust jacket in remarkably beautiful condition. One of the indisputably great novels of the twentieth century, AS I LAY DYING is a story of family horror and human tragedy Faulkner claimed to have written in just six weeks, without any real effort to speak of: "It just came all of a piece with no work on my part. I thought of all the natural catastrophes that could happen to a family and let them all happen." It was easy, he said, "real easy." 7.25'' x 5''. Original tan cloth with brown lettering. Red topstain. In original unclipped ($2.50) tan dust jacket. Initial "I" aligned on page 11. 254 pages. Light pencil notation to jacket front flap; tiny contemporary bookseller ticket to rear pastedown. Book with minor soil to front joint. Light edgewear and a few traces of soil to jacket; spine toned.

As I Lay Dying is a 1930 Southern Gothic novel by American author William Faulkner. Faulkner said that he wrote the novel from midnight to 4:00 AM over the course of six weeks and that he did not change a word of it. It is Faulkner's fifth novel and consistently ranked among the best novels of 20th-century literature.