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“AIN’T WAR HELL”?: EXCEPTIONAL FIRST EDITION OF FAULKNER’S FIRST NOVEL, SOLDIERS’ PAY, IN RARE ORIGINAL DUST JACKET

FAULKNER, William. Soldiers’ Pay. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1926. Octavo, original dark blue cloth, patterned endpapers, uncut, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom chemise and slipcase.

First edition of Faulkner’s first novel, set in the aftermath of WWI, evoking the experiences of a “lost generation… wherein returning veterans confront a world that doesn’t understand them” (Parini), in the very rare original dust jacket.

Following publication of Soldiers’ Pay, Faulkner’s first novel, critics wrote “that no first novel in the previous 30 years ‘had attained such perfection’ and ranked Faulkner above D.H. Lawrence and Hemingway” (Blotner, 263). The novel’s subject reflected Faulkner’s long obsession with World War I. As a young man he attempted to enlist, only to be turned down on the basis of his stature. When he adopted a British persona and joined the Royal Air Force in Canada, the war ended before he had finished his flight training. Soldiers’ Pay “represents a young writer’s attempt to deal with his own chaotic experience… [and] follows lines familiar to readers of ‘lost generation’ stories, wherein returning veterans confront a world that doesn’t understand them” (Parini, 83-4). “A deft hand has woven this narrative of mixed and frustrated emotions and has set it down with hard intelligence as well as consummate pity. The book rings true” (New York Times) “A rich compound of imagination, observation, and experience. In an isolated world of Faulkner’s own making, shadows having the reality of men grope through a maze complex enough to be at once pitiful and comic, passionate, tormenting, and strange” (Literary Digest). One of 2512 copies. Petersen A2.1. Bruccoli & Clark I:121. We were told at the time of purchase that this copy was from the Carl Peterson collection, possibly the greatest collection of Faulkner books ever assembled.

Book lovely with just a bit or restoration to rear paper hinge; bright dust jacket with modest restoration to extremities. An excellent copy. Very rare.