Theodore Dreiser. An American Tragedy - Two Signed Sets. Boni & Liveright, 1925. The limited edition of 795 copi... (Total: 4 Items)

Description

This lot includes: An American Tragedy. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925. Special limited edition of 795 numbered copies, signed by the author on a special limitation page in front of Volume I. Two octavo volumes. 431; 409 pages. Original tan buckram spine over blue paper boards with titles stamped in red on the front board of each volume and in gilt on the spines. Edges untrimmed. Blue endpapers. Light browning to cloth spines, with minor soiling to boards. Contents sound save for pages 3-8 and 231-231 in Volume I which have some modest staining on the pages. Small bookseller label on the rear pastedown of each volume. Very good in the original slipcase which is complete but broken at all but one corner. [and:] An American Tragedy. First edition. Signed by the author on the title page of Volume I. Two twelvemo volumes. 431; 409 pages. Original black cloth with vignette stamped in gilt on the front board of each volume and titles in gilt on the spine. Moderate wear to boards with some fading to gilt titles on the spine. Contents sound. Very good.

Dreiser's An American Tragedy is based on the murder case of Chester Gillette who killed his pregnant girlfriend in a small town in upstate New York when the illicit relationship threatened his social and financial advancement. The book dealt with serious subjects such as religion, abortion and capital punishment. "In 1930...the seven judges sitting on the highest court of Massachusetts agreed to a man that Dreiser's 840-page novel An American Tragedy - his most popular book and the one many critics consider Dreiser's best - was 'obscene, indecent and manifestly tending to corrupt the morals of youth'" (de Grazia, 98).