Description

THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION,
IN SCARCE FIRST STATE DUST JACKET

CLARK, Walter Van Tilburg. The Ox-Bow Incident. New York: Random House, (1940). Octavo, original cream cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in custom decorative clamshell box.

First edition of Clark’s first novel, inscribed in the year of publication, “For Alyce Couch Conton—Davies missed, but I still think he had the idea—it’s in us. Walter. Walter V.T. Clark, Sept. 25, 1940.”

Born in Maine, Clark spent part of his childhood in Nevada and thereafter the West became essential to him, “giving him theme and setting for all of his best works.” The searing tale of a mob that mistakenly lynches three innocent men, The Ox-Bow Incident “expressed Clark’s moral values directly: he believed in justice, courage, and freedom and that all people have a responsibility to defend them” (ANB). Critical praise of the novel quickly established Clark’s reputation. To the New York Times, it was “sort of what you might call a masterpiece,” and Wallace Stegner placed Walter Van Tilburg Clark “on the permanent shelf” of great American writers. Adapted to film in 1943 by director William Wellman, the movie starred Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn.  In first state dust jacket, with Random House bookmark attached to rear flap. Bookplate. Book fine. Moderate edge-wear to bright price-clipped dust jacket. Creative custom box reproduces the dust jacket illustration with colored cloth onlays.