“A SENSATION OF BREAKING THROUGH… TO TRUTH, PREVIOUSLY LOCKED UP”

UPDIKE, John. The Same Door. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959. Octavo, original half cloth and paper boards, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom slipcase. $750.

First edition of John Updike’s first collection of short stories.

Updike's first collection of short stories concludes with "The Happiest I've Been," about which the author later reflected, "I had a sensation of breaking through, as if through a thin sheet of restraining glass, to material, to truth, previously locked up." The 16 stories were first published in The New Yorker between late 1954 and the beginning of 1959. Published the same year as Updike's first novel, The Poorhouse Fair.

Bright dust jacket with only most minor rubbing to spine ends. A fine copy.