"WITH RESPECT AND GREAT PLEASURE, JOHN STEINBECK": FIRST EDITION OF THE GRAPES OF WRATH, INSCRIBED BY STEINBECK TO HIS CLOSE FRIEND DR. THADDEUS ST. MARTIN, WITH AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY STEINBECK ON HIS EMBOSSED LETTERHEAD
STEINBECK, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Viking, (1939). Octavo, original pictorial beige cloth, illustrated endpapers, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
First edition of Steinbeck's most important novel, his searing masterpiece of moral outrage and "intense humanity," winner of the 1940 Pulitzer Prize, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to a close friend, "For again Dr. St. Martin with respect and great pleasure, John Steinbeck." Accompanied by an autograph letter signed by Steinbeck to Dr. St. Martin and his wife, penned on Steinbeck's embossed letterhead stationery.
"It is a long novel, the longest that Steinbeck has written, and yet it reads as if it had been composed in a flash, ripped off the typewriter and delivered to the public as an ultimatum… Steinbeck has written a novel from the depths of his heart with a sincerity seldom equaled" (Peter Monro Jack). "The Grapes of Wrath is the kind of art that's poured out of a crucible in which are mingled pity and indignation… Its power and importance do not lie in its political insight but in its intense humanity… [It] is the American novel of the season, probably the year, possibly the decade" (Clifton Fadiman).
Recipients Dr. Thaddeus St. Martin and his wife Gladys were good friends with Steinbeck and his second wife Gwyndolyn Conger. They lived in Louisiana. Dr. St. Martin was a world-renowned radiologist who studied the growth rates in unborn children in the 1920s and 30s, writing several books on the subject. In 1936, he published the novel Mme. Toussaint's Wedding Day, to which Steinbeck refers in the accompanying letter. Steinbeck wrote about St. Martin and his ability to make a mean martini in Travels with Charley: "There lives my old friend Doctor St. Martin, a gentle, learned man, a Cajun who has lifted babies and cured colic among the shell-heap Cajuns for miles around. I guess he knows more about Cajuns than anyone living, but I remembered with longing other gifts of Doctor St. Martin. He makes the best and most subtle martini in the world by a process approximating magic."
The accompanying autograph letter reads: "Dear Thad & Glad[ys]: The book came this morning and I shall get it off immediately. I'm sending it to Nunnally Johnson. I hope he will do something about it. I wouldn't trust it with anyone else. It was a good time thanks to all of you. A time to be remembered. I don't know when I get off. The usual War Dep't delay. They do nothing simply. Gwyn will write as soon as she gets her equilibrium. Meanwhile thanks again for the book and love to you both. John. 330 E. 51st St., N.Y.C. April ninth." Somebody has penciled in the lower left corner "1943." Nunnally Johnson was an American filmmaker who worked as a writer and producer on the film versions of Grapes of Wrath (1940) and The Moon Is Down (1943). Steinbeck seems to be saying that he would forward St. Martin's novel Mme. Toussaint's Wedding Day to Johnson for a possible movie adaptation. First issue, with "First Published in April 1939" on copyright page and first edition notice on front flap of dust jacket. Goldstone & Payne A12a. Salinas Public Library, 29. Bruccoli & Clark I:354. From a private collection of books and letters, all inscribed by Steinbeck to Dr. Martin.
Book about-fine, bright dust jacket with restoration to edges. A lovely copy with a fantastic association and letter on Steinbeck's embossed letterhead.