Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
VG First Print

For sale: a rare first edition, second printing hardcover copy of East of Eden by John Steinbeck with no dust jacket. First  Edition unstated, 1952 Viking Press. First Issue with with “bite” for “bight” on page 281 and no subsequent printing. 

The book is in Very Good condition with  with bright, boards, strong corners and rounded bottom spine end. One dime-sized lighter colored spot on rear board. Binding is tight and square. Title on spine is bright with no chips or signs of wear. Previous owner’s signature and address on FEP. No other marks or inscriptions, but the end papers are lightly foxed. The inside pages are perfectly clean – and very lightly toned.

No dust jacket.

In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.