"IN THE FRONT RANKS OF AMERICAN HISTORICAL NOVELISTS"

RICHTER, Conrad. Brothers of No Kin And Other Stories. New York: Hinds, Hayden& Eldredge, (1924). Octavo, original gilt-stamped maroon cloth, original dust jacket. $900.

First edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer's first book, an exceptional presentation copy inscribed by Richter, "For Matt, who has all my books save this callow record of my youth. Of late it has been fortunately scarce and, I am told, sells at a premium. Please read only the first two stories. Had Mitchell Kennerly paid me suitably for the title story probably I should never have slipped and committed the rest which were dashed off by a young man in an effort to get a little extra money into the family till. With my affectionate regard to your Helen, Conrad Richter."

Awarded the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Richter was a struggling writer when he gathered together these 12 stories for publication in Brothers of No Kin, his first book. At the time Richter was modestly hoping, as he indicates in this copy's inscription, to "furnish a little entertainment, and perhaps a stray ray or two of human warmth," and to also earn much-needed income for his Pine Tree Farm (Johnson, Conrad Richter, 99). Richter is perhaps best known for Sea of Grass (1936), Light in the Forest (1953), and his trilogy: The Trees (1940), The Fields (1946) and The Town (1950). These works from his nearly six decades as a writer "establish him clearly in the front ranks of American historical novelists, and they leave as a legacy a paean to simple goodness" (ANB). The title story, "his first fiction story," initially appeared in The Forum (Complete Biographical Encyclopedia of Pulitzer Prize Winners, 200). Other stories in this collection, together in book form for the first time, were serialized in magazines such as Outlook, Saturday Evening Post, and Ladies' Home Journal. With second-issue orange dust jacket, as often. Bruccoli & Clark I:307.

Only lightest toning to dust jacket spine. A handsome about-fine copy, scarce inscribed.