LOT #45188 |
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Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird. ...
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Description
Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1960. First edition, in the first issue dust jacket. With a bookplate signed by the author from the Alabama Humanities Award laid-in. Octavo. 296 pages. Publisher's brown paper boards backed in pale green cloth, spine stamped in brown. Original illustrated first issue dust jacket unclipped ($3.95), restored.A staple of literature conversations the world over, To Kill a Mockingbird has been highly praised and scrutinized since its publication for themes of racial injustice, class, compassion, gender roles, and more. Winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize in Literature, and awarded many other accolades, the novel remains a keystone title in American literature to this day.
The owner of this copy, Annie Laurie Williams, was the author's motion picture agent, and it was Williams who ultimately sold the film rights for Lee's novel to Universal Pictures. The award-winning book was subsequently adapted for the silver screen in 1962, directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Gregory Peck and Mary Badham. Like the book, the film was incredibly well-received, grossing a reported six times its budget and winning three Academy Awards, including Best Actor by Gregory Peck and Best Picture. The film was selected in 1995 for preservation by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress and the American Film Institute named Atticus Finch the greatest movie hero of the twentieth century.
Williams has written on the front flyleaf, just above her address stamp, some of the novel's early achievements, including "4th Sunday [New York] Times Best Seller, 1960 Literary Guild, Readers Digest, British Book Club, [and] Feb 1961 Alternate [Choice] for Book of the Month Club." Williams, along with her husband and business partner Maurice Crain, who became Lee's literary agent, championed Lee's novel from the beginning; indeed, Lee credited them with the success of her career, specifically noting Crain as having stuck by her when almost every published had passed on her manuscript. These two Texans, without a doubt, helped bring to light one of the bestselling books and one of the greatest films of all time.
Condition: Somewhat skewed, minor edgewear, corners bumped and rubbed, spine somewhat sunned, head and tail pushed, some soiling along board edges. Text block edges toned with minor wear; ownership stamp of Annie Laurie Williams to front flyleaf recto with her pencil notes to the same. A few corners creased, some scattered staining to margins. Dust jacket unclipped ($3.95); full color restoration, scattered staining to flaps, paper restorations along edges and folds. Housed in a custom clamshell box of quarter green morocco and green cloth by the Dragonfly Bindery, tooled and lettered in gilt. Very good book in a good dust jacket.
Auction Info
2023 November 29 - 30 Rare Books Signature® Auction #6278 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
November, 2023
29th-30th
Wednesday-Thursday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 11
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
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