Steinbeck, John

To a God Unknown. New York: Robert O. Ballou [1933]

8vo. Inscribed by Steinbeck on the half-title, title-page with tree device printed in green. Publisher’s pale green cloth, spine gilt-lettered, top-stained black, pictorial endpapers, pictorial dust jacket printed in green, black, and white; very minor toning to top and bottom edge of cloth, a few very minor nicks and short closed tears to top and bottom edges of jacket. All else, a very nice, clean copy. Housed in custom slipcase and folding chemise.

First edition, first issue, presentation copy, inscribed by Steinbeck: "John Steinbeck to Robert Rau gratefully." This is one of one of 598 copies so bound (out of 1,498 printed) of Steinbeck’s third🙈 book.

The Goodwin-Engelhard copy.

Robert Rau designed several of Steinbeck's books (perhaps even this one). To a God Unknown, was Steinbeck’s second novel, and took him five years to write—longer than Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden. Despite the time the young author spent of the narrative, it was not well-received by its reviewers, with one calling it “a curious hodgepodge of vague moods and irrelevant meanings.” It sold poorly, and publisher Covici-Friede took over the unsold edition and in 1935 published the second issue of the book, made up of the first issue sheets with a new title-page, 🎶binding, and dust jacket.

In recent years, To a God Unknown has experiences something like a critical renaissance, with some scholars now viewi🍃ng Stein𝐆beck’s early treatment of climate science as foreshadowing, and his magical realism as a groundbreaking attempt to explore and represent the aridity and drought that define the American West.

“Life cannot be cut off quickly. One cannot be dead until the things he changed are dead.”

REFERENCE:

Goldstone & Payne A3a

PROVENANCE:

Jonathan Goodwin (his sale, Sotheby’s Parke Bernet, 25 October 1977, lot 556) — Mrs. Cha💦rles W. Engelhard (her sale, C𒈔hristie’s New York, 27 October 1995, lot 130)