Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
STEINBECK, John. TYPED LETTER SIGNED (TLS). n.d. [April 1939], Los Gatos, 1939.
Price: US$3125.00 + shipping
Description: One-page TYPED LETTER SIGNED in full in ink to Mrs. Holman [Zena Holman, wife of Wilfred Rensselar Holman of the historic Holman's Department Store in Pacific Grove, CA], responding to her question about the release of THE GRAPES OF WRATH on 5 April 1939 after it was scheduled for release on the 14th by Viking. Evidently bookstores began selling them earlier, and she has written him directly to ask if she can. Steinbeck writes: "I don't know why they have these release dates which no one keeps anyway. Apparently this book is being sold all over the state. And if one store does it I can't see any reason for others not to." She must have inquired about a pamphlet she saw in San Francisco that was being sold. "Enclosed is probably the pamphlet you speak of. I did not know that it was being sold or anything about it except that a few were sent me by Viking. As to the one in San Francisco you speak of, I have never heard of it." The pamphlet Steinbeck sent--JOHN STEINBECK. PERSONAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES by Lewis Gannett, published by Viking in 1939, 14 pages--is included here with the letter. With the envelope. Creases from mailing, including the pamphlet which has a vertical crease. Near Fine
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath. The Viking Press, N.Y., 1939.
Price: US$7200.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: cover board and spine soiling and shelving worn; slight spine lean; x-lib; red music sheet end papers featuring Battle Hymn of the Republic; first published in April 1939; from the private collection of the seller; please contact for pictures; cannot authenticate signature
Seller: Booksdoc, Russell, ON, Canada
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Viking Press, 1939.
Price: US$9500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Fifth edition, published one month after the first edition, as stated on copyright page May 1939. One of ten leatherbound presentation copies, signed by Steinbeck on a laid-in slip inscribed to Elyse. Book near fine. Housed in a custom-made fold-out case.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Viking Press, 1939.
Price: US$10000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Inscribed by John Steinbeck on the title page. A second printing before publication. Very good in a very good dust jacket. Book has slightly tanned spine and a small (less than an inch) tear in the spine cloth near the front panel. Jacket has reviews on the front flap and is from a later printing. Bottom corner of the front flap is clipped, where it would have said what printing it is. We will provide a certificate of authenticity. Housed in a custom-made collector's slipcase.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
STEINBECK, John.. The Grapes of Wrath.. New York: The Viking Press, 1939, 1939.
Price: US$24220.45 + shipping
Description: 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 boarish 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). Goldstone & Payne A12. Stephen K. George & Barbara A. Heavilin, John Steinbeck and his Contemporaries, 2007. 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 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.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$33000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, with "First Published in April 1939" on copyright page and first edition notice on front flap of dust jacket. 8vo., publisher's heavy grain decorated beige cloth. A near fine copy in like dustjacket, bright, clean and fresh. Housed in a tailor made leather spined case. Inscribed by the author to the front flyleaf: "For Jules and Joyce and also Joan with love John Steinbeck." Beneath the signature is one of Steinbeck's irreverent flying pig sketches (or "Pigasus" if you prefer), generally an indication that the recipient of his presentation was a close and valued friend,or someone he held in high esteem. In this case it was Jules Buck, and Joyce Gates, with their young daughter, Joan. Jules Buck started out as John Huston's camerman for his wartime documentaries ("Winning Your Wings", "Let There Be Light" etc.) and then grew into an influential producer, both in the US and abroad. Although having a sketchy working relationship with Huston, they reportedly fell out over Huston's anti-Semitic behaviour (Huston later referred to Buck as "My body servant" which is obviously super healthy). He collaborated with Steinbeck on the screenplay of what would end up as Elia Kazan's "Viva Zapata", although uncredited, and later produced "The Killers", "The Naked City" etc. before shifting to Europe to escape the Hollywood witch hunts, founding a production company with Peter O'Toole (Keep Films) and producing such wonders as "Under Milk Wood", "The Day They Robbed The Bank of England", "Lord Jim" and "What's New Pussycat" Joyce Gates was an actress in various small, often uncredited, roles in movies like "Kismet", and their daughter Joan is a notable journalist, writer, and all round renaissance woman by all accounts; at one point the London correspondent for Warhol's "Interview" magazine, the only American to have been editor-in-chief of French Vogue, and the subject of Tom Wolfe's "The Life and Hard Times of a Teenage London Society Girl.", later published in "The Pump House Gang." She started studying acting in 2002, and appeared in Nora Ephron's "Julie and Julia", later writing about the experience of auditioning for Ephron. She fell from grace after Vogue published a decidedly lightweight and grievously ill timed interview with Asma al-Assad, wife of Bashar al-Assad. Frankly they seem fascinating, but basically the point is that Steinbeck knew them very well, and liked them, and inscribed his sad, slow, strange, dust-bowl novel to them. A really gorgeous and interesting association copy of an undeniably great book.
Seller: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.