"BUT IT WAS OF COURSE OUT OF THE QUESTION THAT IN A DEEP COUNTRY PART OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE, IN NINETEEN TWENTY-THREE, HE COULD ACTUALLY MANAGE TO HAVE HIMSELF NAILED TO A CROSS": FIRST EDITION OF AGEE'S THE MORNING WATCH, 1951

AGEE, James. The Morning Watch. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951. Octavo, original patterned light green paper boards, original dust jacket. $350.

First edition of this autobiographical novella about Agee's childhood, schooling, and religious musings.

"The Morning Watch is Agee's most significant representation of the continuing symptoms of anger and self-punishment that followed his father's death… The Morning Watch replicates exactly many details of character and plot from A Death in the Family and is often regarded as a (more well-rounded and better planned) sequel to it" (Folks, "James Agee's Fashioning of Guilt: 'The Morning Watch,'" 69). This work first appeared in Botteghe Oscure (Rome). Tiny bookseller ticket.

Book very nearly fine, dust jacket with only light wear to extremities. A near-fine copy.