Description
A LEGENDARY RARITY: EXTREMELY RARE INSCRIBED PRESENTATION-ASSOCIATION FIRST EDITION OF THE BLACK STALLION, INSCRIBED BY WALTER FARLEY BEFORE PUBLICATION, ONE OF ONLY THREE INSCRIBED COPIES OF WHICH WE ARE AWARE, THIS BEING THE ONLY ONE TO BE PUBLICLY OFFERED
FARLEY, Walter. The Black Stallion. New York: Random House, (1941). Octavo, original gray cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in custom cloth clamshell box.
Extremely rare first edition of the first novel in Farley’s beloved “Black Stallion” series, one of only three presentation copies known to us (one still residing with the author’s heirs, one at Columbia University with the author’s papers) inscribed on the front free endpaper: “To Dolores—My very extra-special girl friend. Love Walter. Sept. 3, 1940. P.S. Let your sister Sue, and your mother, and your dad take a ‘peek’ at The Black, too, won’t you?” Additionally, on the inscription leaf, is written in a child’s hand, “Dolores Pollock, 6B,” evidently the young recipient of this copy.
“Whether fans are introduced to Walter Farley’s Black Stallion in the original novel form… or on the screen in the highly successful film version [1979], they are meeting one of the most enduring and popular animal characters ever created… While still attending Erasmus Hall High School [in Brooklyn, New York], Farley began to write the story that would become The Black Stallion. The novel was published in 1941 while Farley was a student at Columbia University and over the years was joined by many sequels… The Black Stallion… remains Farley’s greatest creation, and devoted horse fans will continue to cheer as the Black and Alec thunder down the homestretch for many years to come” (Silvey, 237-38).
Farley graduated from Columbia shortly after publication of The Black Stallion, but spent the next five years in the U.S. Army during World War II. Most of the time he was assigned to Yank, the army weekly magazine, and he was also trained in the Fourth Armored Division. The first sequel, The Black Stallion Returns, appeared in 1945, and the series eventually encompassed 20 titles. He married his wife, Rosemary, in 1945, and they had four children whom they raised on a farm in Pennsylvania and in a beach house in Florida. With ten black-and-white illustrations by Keith Ward. Dolores Pollock’s pencil owner signature on front free endpaper, above Farley’s inscription.
Text clean, cloth with minor soiling, light expert reinforcement to gutter of endpapers. Very scarce original unrestored dust jacket in beautiful condition, with some light edge-wear and creasing, bright and clean with largely unfaded spine. Overall an excellent copy of this very scarce first edition, most rare and desirable inscribed by Farley.
