BAUMAN RARE BOOKS 18 19STEINBECK, John. Of Mice and Men. New York, 1937. Small octavo, original beige cloth, dust jacket. $6800 First edition, first issue, of Steinbeck’s “beautifully written [and] marvelous picture of the tragedy of loneliness” (Eleanor Roosevelt), in scarce original dust jacket. Steinbeck began Of Mice and Men as a children’s story. “Although the finished novelette does not seem appropriate for children—that intention was obviously abandoned—the simplicity of its style and the clarity and precision of its imagery may well have been prompted by this original purpose” (Benson, 326). The result is “a sophisticated and artful rendering of the basic conflict between two worlds: between an idealized landscape and the real world with its pain and anguish” (Literary History of the American West, 433). First issue, with all first issue points. Goldstone & Payne A7a. Book with very slight toning to cloth, dust jacket with toning to spine, less so to rear panel and along edges of flaps, mild soiling to rear panel. An extremely good copy. “An’ You Get To Tend The Rabbits”
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