Description

RARE PRESENTATION COPY OF FAULKNER’S LAST NOVEL, THE REIVERS,
INSCRIBED AND TWICE SIGNED BY WILLIAM FAULKNER TO CLOSE FRIENDS IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION

FAULKNER, William. The Reivers: A Reminiscence. New York: Random House, (1962). Octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom chemise and half morocco slipcase.

First trade edition, presentation copy, of Faulkner’s last novel, winner of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize, inscribed to two of Faulkner’s close friends: “For Mary Jo and Alexander Rives. Sincerely, Bill Faulkner. Charlottesville, 27 May 1962,” and additionally signed by Faulkner on the title page.

The novel “plays in and out of incidents and stories about Faulkner’s own family as easily as it scoops up previous Faulkner work. It reinforces the sense that we had earlier, that the material for his fiction was an undifferentiated mass in his imagination, which he could draw on, mingling fact and fancy as the case may be. With The Reivers, we sense that consciously he has reached the end of his material, but there is no telling how much more remained buried, ore from an endless lode” (Karl, 1021). Dust jacketdesigned by Milton Glaser is first state, with no mention of the Book of the Month Club Selection. Preceded by a signed limited edition of 500 copies. Petersen A54.2b. The recipients, Alexander and Mary Joan Rives, were friends of William and Estelle Faulkner, with whom they often spent Christmases. A realtor and horseback fox hunter, “Keswick Master Alexander Rives had let [William Faulkner] ride his champion hunter, Wedgwood, twice,” which prompted Faulkner to consider riding in the Virginia Field Hunter Championship (Blotner, 665). Alexander, in particular, was close with Estelle and helped her to travel around the country while her husband was revising The Hamlet. Recipient’s bookplate laid in. Pencil notation. Book about-fine with a bit of pinpoint foxing to edges and very mild wrinkling to front free endpaper. Dust jacket fine. A beautiful inscribed and twice-signed copy. Rare.