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Frank Norris. The Octopus. A Story of California. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901....
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Description
Frank Norris. The Octopus. A Story of California. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901.8vo. Original red cloth, gilt-lettered and -decorated on upper cover and spine; quarter calf folding case.
AN EXTREMELY FINE RARE PRESENTATION COPY.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING, with all BAL's first issue points. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR, on the front flyleaf: "To Juliet Wilbor / Tompkins. / Very Sincerely / Frank Norris / The Judson town / May 11 1901." The Octopus, the first book in Norris's projected trilogy, "The Epic of Wheat," deals with the growing of wheat in California and the struggle of the ranchers against the railroad. Norris finished the second title, The Pit, about speculation on the Chicago wheat exchange, shortly before his untimely death; it was published posthumously in 1903. The projected third book, The Wolf, to focus on the consumption of the wheat as bread in a famine-stricken village in Europe, was left unwritten.
Juliet Wilbor Tompkins (1871-1956) was an associate editor at Munsey's Magazine from 1897 to 1901. Around 1898, Frank Munsey appointed her the editor of Puritan, another of his magazines; she remained editor until 1901. She also edited the literary magazine called The Wave, to which Norris contributed stories and sketches. She published 14 novels and numerous short stories. A copy of McTeague inscribed to Tompkins, sold in Part I of the the Strutz library at Heritage Auctions, Dallas, on 27 June 2024.
Frank Norris presentation inscriptions are very rare. Only two other presentation copies of The Octopus have appeared at auction since 1966 (both later printings); of these the Hersholt-Neville copy sold most recently at Sotheby's in 2004, for $13,200.
Condition: Touch of wear to spine ends and extremities. Tiny excision of letter "h" in the inscription on front flyleaf (thereby correcting the name "Tomkins"), otherwise internally extremely fine. A superb copy.
References: BAL 15031; Lohf & Sheehy 10; Wright III, 3989; Zamorano Eighty 58.
Provenance: Juliet Wilbor Tompkins (presentation inscription); Roger K. Larson (bookplate). From the William A. Strutz Library.
View all of [The William A. Strutz Library ]
Auction Info
2024 December 11 Important English and American Literature: The William A. Strutz Library, Part II, Rare Books Signature® Auction #6300 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
December, 2024
11th
Wednesday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 5
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