Description

PRESENTATION COPY OF WILLIAM FAULKNER’S RARE FIRST BOOK,
TWICE SIGNED BY FAULKNER

FAULKNER, William. The Marble Faun. Boston: Four Seas Company, 1924. Octavo, original green paper boards, printed paper label on cover and spine.

First edition of Faulkner’s rare first book, a collection of poems, twice signed by Faulkner, once on the title page and again following the Epilogue. A lovely copy, most scarce and desirable in this condition and twice signed by Faulkner.

Four Seas agreed to issue Faulkner’s collection of poems in 1923, provided he pay for the manufacturing costs (their standard arrangement). Faulkner declined to proceed, finding himself at the time without sufficient funds. Within six months, however, he had received the encouragement and financial backing of Phil Stone and Faulkner, then 27, contracted for the printing of 500 copies of The Marble Faun. The book sold poorly and was quickly remaindered. No records survive detailing the number of copies Four Seas actually sold prior to disposing of the stock on the remainder market, but an early estimate suggested 100 copies. William Boozer, in William Faulkner’s First Book: The Marble Faun (1975), specifically located 56 copies. Boozer considered the existence of other copies for a total of near 70, and has since found more, but his total is still short of the 100 copies initially assumed. Though not often associated with poetry, Faulkner in fact considered it his first passion. As late as 1957, seven years after winning the Nobel Prize, he confessed to a University of Virginia audience, “I wanted to be a poet, and I think of myself now as a failed poet. Not as a novelist but as a failed poet who had to take what he could do.” Peterson A1a. Massey 743.

Some bumping to extremities, slight chipping to foot of spine, and a small, nearly imperceptible tear to top edge of mid-spine area, otherwise a very fine copy of this rare book, most scarce and desirable in this condition and twice signed.