Sister Carrie
NY: B.W. Dodge, 1907. Hardcover. The first printing of the second edition of this book; the very rare first edition of 1900 was surpressed due to its subject matter (a small town 18 year old moves to Chicago and becomes a kept woman) and it is estimated that only some 600 copies were released. This edition, the first edition to be sold in the U.S. and the first with an illustration, is bound in red buckram with front cover lettered and edged in orange, spine lettered in gilt and with gilt design of a broken bowl lower corner of the front cloth. Color frontispiece. A tight copy, with all gilt bright, a nearly imperceptible slit along the lower portion of the front gutter. On the first blank leaf there is a gift inscription dated 1912 from a pastor to a young woman upon her high school graduation and opposite this (on the verso of the front fly) there is a further notation by the recipient regarding the pastor and the date. The very rare first edition of 1900 was surpressed due to its subject matter (a small town 18 year old moves to Chicago and becomes a kept woman and later an actress). Only 1008 copies were printed after Dreiser insisted that Doubleday, McClure honor their contract to publish despite internal objections to it but they refused to advertise it and only 485 copies were sold. A totally unexpurgated editioin did not appear until 1981. Item #E1737
Price: $650.00