Books

First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author "For Vincent Sheean, John Steinbeck" and additionally inscribed by the recipient, "Although it is signed to me, Mr. Steinbeck intended this book to go for the Spanish intellectuals in exile - Vincent Sheean". Vincent Sheean (1899-1975), the American journalist and writer, published Personal History in 1935. A film adaptation, entitled Foreign Correspondent and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was released in 1940. Working as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune he covered the Spanish Civil War, hence his note about "Spanish intellectuals in exile". Sheean had been in Spain with Ernest Hemingway in 1938 and was responsible for the only known meeting between Steinbeck and Hemingway. Writing in John Steinbeck and his Contemporaries, Valerie Hemingway notes that Steinbeck had been "a thorn in Hemingway's side". Nevertheless, Hemingway expressed an interest in meeting Steinbeck in 1944 and, accordingly, Sheean invited Steinbeck and Hemingway to dine with him at Tim Costello's Irish pub on Third Avenue, New York. John O'Hara, the short story writer, was also present and had with him an antique walking cane which he had received as a gift from Steinbeck. Hemingway in a drunken and boorish manner bet O'Hara 50 dollars that he could break the cane over his head. The bet was accepted and O'Hara lost both his cane and the money. Steinbeck was disgusted and rather bemused at Hemingway's gratuitous cruelty. Hemingway promised to replace the cane, but never did. Steinbeck would later send O'Hara a replacement. The fine jacket design is by the children's book author and illustrator Elmer Hader (1889-1973), joint recipient, alongside his wife Berta, of the 1948 Caldecott medal. Steinbeck was so taken with the illustrations in their book Billy Butter (1936) that he specially requested Elmer design the cover for The Grapes of Wrath. Elmer later designed the jackets of Steinbeck's East of Eden (1952) and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961). READ MORE Octavo. Original buff cloth, lettering to spine in brown, pictorial design to spine and covers in brown, endpapers decorated with the sheet music for "Battle Hymn of the Republic", top edge yellow. With supplied dust jacket. Housed in custom blue cloth solander box. Book label to the rear pastedown. Extremities worn, spine toned, minor split to front joint, repair to inner front hinge, edges of pp. 91-92 worn, lacking corners of pp. 181-82, and pp. 231-32, occasional short tears; a clean and good copy. Dust jacket lightly soiled with extremities worn and browning to edges; a good copy of an unclipped jacket. Goldstone & Payne A12; ed. Stephen K. George and Barbara A. Heavilin, John Steinbeck and his Contemporaries, 2007.

The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, is a powerful novel depicting the struggles of the Joad family during the Great Depression as they journey from Oklahoma to California in search of a better life.