LEE, Harper.
To Kill A Mockingbird.
Philadelphia & New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1960.
$72,000.00
In Stock
Item Number: RRB-153361
+$500
“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for”: First Edition of To Kill A Mockingbird; Inscribed by Harper Lee in the Year of Publication
First edition of one of the most important American novels of the twentieth century, which had an initial print run of only 5,000 copies and earned Harper Lee the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Octavo, original half-cloth with the spine lettered in brown. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in the year of publication, “Herbert and Grace: You are new friends, but you seem like old ones! Affectionately, Nelle Harper Lee August 21,1960." Lee used her given name, Nelle, only in correspondence and inscriptions to close friends and family. Near fine in a very good dust jacket with light soling and damp staining to the rear panel. Jacket design by Shirley Smith. Author photograph by Truman Capote. From the collection of Dr. Goodman B. Espy III. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by The Harcourt Bindery. A warmly inscribed first edition of the beloved American classic.
Four years after the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee remarked, "I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers, but at the same time I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected." Based on Lee's experiences growing up in the Deep South, the primary themes of the novel involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence with Atticus Finch, the narrator's father, serving as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. The story, told by the six-year-old Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, takes place between 1933 and 35 and follows the story of a local black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a young white woman. Appointed to defend him, Atticus Finch establishes Robinson's innocence and a devious plot to convict him by a local white couple. Despite her editors' warnings that the book might not sell well, it quickly became a sensation, bringing acclaim to Lee in literary circles, in her hometown of Monroeville, and throughout Alabama. The New Yorker declared it "skilled, unpretentious, and totally ingenious." It has gone on to become one of the best-loved classics of all time and has been translated into more than forty languages, selling more than forty million copies worldwide.
To Kill A Mockingbird.
$72,000.00
In Stock
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