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"WHAT A PRICE FOR A PROLETARIAN BOOK!" COPY OF IN DUBIOUS BATTLE INSCRIBED FOR STEINBECK'S NIECE AND HER HUSBAND. STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968. In Dubious Battle. New York: Covici Friede, 1936. image 1
"WHAT A PRICE FOR A PROLETARIAN BOOK!" COPY OF IN DUBIOUS BATTLE INSCRIBED FOR STEINBECK'S NIECE AND HER HUSBAND. STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968. In Dubious Battle. New York: Covici Friede, 1936. image 2
Lot 23

"WHAT A PRICE FOR A PROLETARIAN BOOK!" COPY OF IN DUBIOUS BATTLE INSCRIBED FOR STEINBECK'S NIECE AND HER HUSBAND.
STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968.
In Dubious Battle. New York: Covici Friede, 1936.

25 October 2023, 14:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$53,760 inc. premium

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"WHAT A PRICE FOR A PROLETARIAN BOOK!" COPY OF IN DUBIOUS BATTLE INSCRIBED FOR STEINBECK'S NIECE AND HER HUSBAND.

STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968. In Dubious Battle. New York: Covici Friede, 1936.
Publisher's yellow cloth decorated in red and lettered in black, top edge red, dust jacket. Minor bump to center right margin of prelims, small spot to top edge; very light shelfwear to head and tail of spine; light thumbsoiling to lower panel of jacket.
Provenance: Presentation inscription from Steinbeck to Joan and David Heyler; by descent.

FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED on the front flyleaf: "For Joan & David / John Steinbeck / [duck device]." When David Heyler married into the extended Steinbeck clan, he kept his book collecting hobby a secret from his wife's famous uncle at first, eventually coming clean around 1951. This example was very likely picked up by Heyler from a book dealer who has written in a pencil price of $8.50, more than three times the original sale price of $2.50, leading Steinbeck to add a parenthetical: "what a price for a proletarian book." Goldstone & Payne A5b.

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