Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
STEINBECK, JOHN.. In Dubious Battle. New York: Covici-Friede, 1936, 1936.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition. Signed by the author in 1936; signature a little blotted; a good copy in a worn and mended dust jacket. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.
Seller: Peter L. Stern & Co., Inc, Newton, MA, U.S.A.
Steinbeck, John. In Dubious Battle.. Covici-Friede Publishers, New York, 1936.
Price: US$6000.00 + shipping
Description: Signed limited first edition of this "dramatically intense, beautifully written novel" (The New Republic); the first book in Steinbeck's Dustbowl trilogy, which was followed by Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, number 39 of 99 examples. Octavo, original half morocco. Signed by John Steinbeck. In fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. On publication, New York Times reviewer Fred T. March compared it to the "genial gusto" of the "picaresque" Tortilla Flat. He commented that "You would never know that In Dubious Battle was by the same John Steinbeck if the publishers did not tell you so." He called it "courageous and desperately honest," "the best labor and strike novel to come out of our contemporary economic and social unrest," and "such a novel as Sinclair Lewis at his best might have done had he gone on with his projected labor novel."
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
STEINBECK, John.. In Dubious Battle.. Covici Friede, New York, 1936.
Price: US$6500.00 + shipping
Description: 349 pp. 8vo, publisher's cloth in glassine wrapper and publisher's slipcase. First edition; No. 52 of 99 copies, signed by John Steinbeck. A fine copy. The glassine wrapper has some chipping to edges and a dime-sized hole to the center of the spine. The slipcase printed paper label is bright. The slipcase is complete but has some wear to the top which has resulted in some narrow areas of missing paper.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
STEINBECK, John. In Dubious Battle. Covici Friede, New York, 1936.
Price: US$6500.00 + shipping
Description: Full Description: STEINBECK, John. In Dubious Battle. New York: Covici Friede, [1936]. First edition, one of ninety-nine copies signed by the author of which this is number 57. Octavo (8 x 5 3/8 inches; 205 x 137 mm). 349, [3, blank] pp. With the signed limitation page inserted at rear. Original black cloth over grey buckram boards. Spine lettered in gilt. Top edge dyed red. Some minor rubbing to bottom of spine. Previous owner's ink inscription dated 1940 on half-title. In the original black paper slipcase with paper spine label. Some very minor rubbing to slipcase. A bright, fine copy. Goldstone & Payne A5a. HBS 69028. $6,500.
Seller: Heritage Book Shop, ABAA, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
Steinbeck, John.. In Dubious Battle. [Limited Edition].. Covici-Friede, New York, 1936.
Price: US$9450.00 + shipping
Description: #6/99 copies, specially bound in black and light grey buckram, top edge stained rose, in publisher's black paper covered slipcase with spine label, without jacket, as issued. SIGNED by Steinbeck and Numbered on the concluding colophon. Book is Very Fine. Slipcase is Very Good or better, with moderate fading to closed end, minor wear to edges of open end, but sound. 349pp. Enclosed in a custom made clamshell box. Q09641
Seller: Compass Rose Books, ABAA-ILAB, Kensington, CA, U.S.A.