Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Henry, Arthur. Princess of Arcady. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York, 1900.
Price: US$400.00 + shipping
Description: The last chapter is by Theodore Dreiser. This book was published about a month prior to Dreiser's "Sister Carrie" Very good with slightly faded spine and edges. Spine barely rolled. Text block edges and a few pages mildly foxed. Neat pencil note on front free endsheet. Pages are very clean and bright
Seller: Weller Book Works, A.B.A.A., Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. Doubleday, Page and Co, New York, 1900.
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 557 pp. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's red buckram cloth stamped in black. Very Good. Inner hinges repaired, spine end and corners of cloth retouched, and torn bottom corner of rear free end paper reattached. Cloth moderately rubbed and spine darkened, light staining to textblock edge, light cigar-smoke odor to pages. Previous owner name to front paste down, foxing to prelims and terminals and contents toned. Dreiser's first novel was published despite objections from Frank Doubleday (and his wife, who thought the content was too sordid.) It was published in a run of just over 1,000 copies; fewer than 600 were distributed, and the rest remaindered. Subsequent editions were bowdlerized and censored, and it was not until 1981--eighty-one years later-- that Dreiser's unaltered version appeared back in print.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
DREISER, Theodore. Sister Carrie. Doubleday, Page & Co, New York, 1900.
Price: US$5500.00 + shipping
Description: Original publisher's red cloth with title in borders on the front board, a bit worn. Preserved in a half-morocco clamshell box with gilt decorated spine. Bookplate of Howard Roosa on the front paste-down. First edition of Dreiser's story of a young girl's move to the big city and her subsequent rise to fame as she pursues her own "American dream." The book was only published at the fraught urging of Dreiser, as even his wife found the content too sordid. Though less than five hundred copies were initially sold (out of a first run of 1008), it is now considered one of the greatest of all American urban novels. Dreiser (1871-1945) is one of the most recognizable members of the literary movement known as Naturalism. He was often forced to battle against censorship, as his subject matter was likely to offend authorities and regularly challenged popular standards of acceptable judgment. His writing frequently explores the tensions between desire, ambition, and social mores.
Seller: B & L Rootenberg Rare Books, ABAA, Sherman Oaks, CA, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. Doubleday, Page & Co, New York, 1900.
Price: US$6750.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: A Near Fine copy of the book. Subtle repairs to the inner hinges, very slight wear to the boards, otherwise a sharp copy. Housed in a quarter-leather red custom clamshell case. "An eighteen year old girl without money or connections ventures forth from her small town in search of a better life, in Theodore Dreiser's revolutionary first novel. The chronicle of Carrie Meeber's rise from obscurity to fameâ"and the effects of her progress on the men who use her and are used in turn, aroused a storm of controversy and debate upon its debut in 1900. The author's nonjudgmental portrait of a heroine who violates the contemporary moral code outraged some critics, including the book's publisher, Frank Doubleday, who tried to back out of his agreement his firm had made with Dreiser. But others were elatedâ"and Dreiser's compelling plot and realistic characters continue to fascinate readers" (Dover). Listed as one of The Guardian's 100 Best Novels, the book was banned for immortality in 1916. Near Fine.
Seller: Whitmore Rare Books, Inc. -- ABAA, ILAB, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.
DREISER, Theodore. Sister Carrie. Doubleday, Page & Co, New York, 1900.
Price: US$8500.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of author's first novel. Crown octavo (7 3/4 x 5 1/8 inches; 197 x 130 mm). [8], 557, [1, blank] pp. Original red cloth. Front board lettered and ruled in black, spine lettered in black. Inner hinges expertly repaired. Occasional light thumb soiling. A couple of small marginal closed tears on p. 129. Still, overall an about fine copy of a scarce item. In a custom quarter red morocco clamshell case. Sister Carrie is one of most significant works of American turn of the century realism. "Sister Carrie, first novel by Theodore Dreiser [was] published in 1900 but suppressed until 1912. Sister Carrie is a work of pivotal importance in American literature, and it became a model for subsequent American writers of realism." (Brittanica). "[Sister Carrie] became a beacon to subsequent American writers whose allegiance was to the realistic treatment of any and all subject matter. Sister Carrie tells the story of a rudderless but pretty small-town girl who comes to the big city filled with vague ambitions. She is used by men and uses them in turn to become a successful Broadway actress while George Hurstwood, the married man who has run away with her, loses his grip on life and descends into beggary and suicide. Sister Carrie was the first masterpiece of the American naturalistic movement in its grittily factual presentation of the vagaries of urban life and in its ingenuous heroine, who goes unpunished for her transgressions against conventional sexual morality. The book's strengths include a brooding but compassionate view of humanity, a memorable cast of characters, and a compelling narrative line. The emotional disintegration of Hurstwood is a much-praised triumph of psychological analysis. (Brittaniac). Atkinson, p. 7. MacDonald, pp. 29-33. Pizer, Dowell & Rusch, A1. HBS 68755. $8,500.
Seller: Heritage Book Shop, ABAA, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. Doubleday, Page & Company, New York, 1900.
Price: US$9500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing. A magnificent bound in the ORIGINAL red buckram cloth from the publisher. The book is in excellent condition. The binding is tight, and the boards are crisp with slight wear to the edges. The pages are exceptionally clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A sharp copy housed in a custom clamshell slipcase for preservation.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie.. Doubleday, Page & Co, New York, 1900.
Price: US$15000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of the author's scarce first book. Octavo, original red cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For F.W. Skiff, with good wishes, from Theodore Dreiser, Portland, June 7, 1930." Bookplate of noted book collector Frederick W. Skiff on the front pastedown. Laid in is an envelope addressed to recipient in Dreiser's hand, and with Dreiser's return address on the back including his name; inside the envelope is a receipt/waybill signed by Dreiser for a shipment via the American Railway Express Company, being a package shipped from Dreiser to Skiff on May 24, 1926, valued at $150. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco chemise and clamshell box. Doubleday's records indicate, "the first edition consisted of 1008 copies, of which 129 were sent out for review, 465 were sold, and the balance, 423 copies, were turned over to J. F. Taylor & Company (a remainder house)". Exceptionally rare signed and with noted provenance. According to biographer W. A. Swanberg, Dreiser âseemed to have had no inkling that he was creating a revolutionary work. He wrote with a compassion for human suffering that was exclusive with him in America. He wrote with a tolerance for transgression that was as exclusive and as naturalâ (De Grazia, 101). He was aware, however, that others would find the novel controversial. Even before it was submitted he had made attempts to revise, or âclean upâ his novel, at the urging of his first wife, Sarah Osborne White, âJug.â With her help and that of his good friend Arthur Henry, he made many changes and cut an estimated 36,000 words from the manuscript. Franklin Doubleday, who was alarmed when he returned from Europe to find that his firm had taken the work, âwent on to publish Carrie, but on his own terms. He personally edited the proofs and insisted to Dreiser that all the profanities be removed and certain âsuggestiveâ passages altered⦠The much-laundered Carrie became spotless; worse-yet, as Dreiserâs biographer Richard Lingeman has said, Carrieâs cheap-looking binding and lettering âwould have been more appropriate on a plumbing manual.â Frank Doubleday carried out the terms of the contract for Carrie in the most minimal way possible, âin the hope that it would not attract much noticeâ (DeGrazia, 103). Because of the alterations Sister Carrie avoided court prosecution but Dreiser felt it was âstillborn.â The expurgated text made Carrieâs motivations incoherent, and bad reviews killed the novel on its first publication. Dreiser was deeply affected by these struggles and did not publish another novel for ten years. H.L. Mencken spearheaded the novelâs critical reappraisal, and it came to be recognized as a groundbreaking and influential novel of American realism and naturalism. As Sinclair Lewis said of Dreiser in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1930, âwithout his pioneering, I doubt if any of us could, unless we liked to be sent to jail, seek to express life, beauty and terrorâ (Parker & Kermode, 2). Named by Modern Library as one of the 100 Greatest Novels of the twentieth century.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. Doubleday, Page & Co, 1900.
Price: US$15000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing SIGNED by Theodore Dreiser on a laid in signature. An attractive copy with light wear to the spine and edges. The binding is tight, and the boards are crisp with light rubbing to the panels. The pages are clean. There is no writing, marks or bookplates in the book. Overall, one of the nicest copies a collector could hope to find of this TRUE FIRST EDITION bound in Original red buckram cloth with letters in black. We buy Dreiser First Editions.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
DREISER, Theodore.. Sister Carrie.. Doubleday, Page, New York, 1900.
Price: US$22500.00 + shipping
Description: 557 pp. 8vo, publisher's wine-red cloth stamped in black. Preserved in a custom cloth chemise and slipcase. First edition. Neat repair to 1-1/2" of the front (inner) hinge; else a very near fine copy with no fading to the blood-red cloth and just a touch of rubbing. Much, much better then usually seen, with a distinguished association. Inscribed copies of Dreiser's suppressed first book are quite uncommon. Author's first book. Inscribed by Theodore Dreiser to author John Kendrick Bangs on the front free endpaper in April, 1907. Distinguished private gilt leather book label on pastedown.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.