“AN EMPHATIC AND CLEAR-CUT STATEMENT OF STEINBECK’S GREATEST SINGLE THEME”: FIRST EDITION OF SWEET THURSDAY
STEINBECK, John. Sweet Thursday. New York: Viking, 1954. Octavo, original beige cloth, original dust jacket.
First edition of Steinbeck’s “rhapsody in blue about the rare and raffish characters who live on Cannery Row” (New York Times), basis for the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Pipe Dream.
This critically praised sequel to Cannery Row (1945) was hailed as "an emphatic and clear-cut statement of Steinbeck's greatest single theme: the common bonds of humanity and love which make goodness and happiness possible" (New Republic). The New York Times called Steinbeck's novel "a rhapsody in blue about the rare and raffish characters who live on Cannery Row… Sweet Thursday is Steinbeck at his best and magnificently entertaining." Published June 10, 1954; issued simultaneously in wrappers. Goldstone & Payne A33a-b. Salinas Public Library, 45-6. Bruccoli & Clark I:356. Bookseller ticket.
Book fine; light edge-wear to near-fine dust jacket.