"IT'S A GIRL. WHAT? A GIRL. BUT I WANTED A BOY"
WILLIAMS, William Carlos. White Mule. Norfolk, Connecticut: New Directions, 1937. Octavo, original beige cloth, original dust jacket. $650.
First edition of the first in the Stecher trilogy of novels about an immigrant family.
This is the first work in the Stecher trilogy, tracing the lives of a family of Scandinavian immigrants, including Flossie, an angry baby that can kick like White Mule whiskey. "At its most thoughtful—and White Mule is a superb example—the common material of the novel is given a new texture… The genuine poet has a more perceptive feeling for detail, and there, since the novel is built on the odds and ends of temporality, he finds his mission. Open Dr Williams' book and you are in a new world of sound. Accents cling to the air. The harmony is the rough, gravely iron rhythm of public speech… Dr. Williams has his characters talk with such a native freshness that the sound is never obstrusive. It is a pure speech because it is so richly characteristic, and its utter realism is therefore deeper, more meaningful than the violent accuracy of naturalism" (Doyle, 141). One of 1100 copies printed. Wallace A18a.
Book with offsetting to front endpapers and mild toning to cloth spine, dust jacket with light wear and toning to extremities. A near-fine copy.