Wolfe, Thomas

You Can't Go Home Again

New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1940. First Edition. Hardcover. "The last of two novels which Thomas Wolfe completed just before his tragic and untimely death is the rich, full-blooded, poetic, and profoundly moving story of a lost modern who found himself. It might also be described as the adventures of an honest man in search of truth. It represents Wolfe's last and maturest work, and is packed with significant meaning for our time. The central figure of this panoramic canvas is George Webber, a gifted young writer. As an artist, he wants to see life clearly and see it whole, and then to tell the plain, unvarnished truth about it. This gets him into a lot of trouble. He writes a book about his home town, putting into it everything he knows about the place and about his family, friends, and neighbors. When the book is published, people feel that he has exposed them naked to the gaze of the world, and the whole town rises up in arms against him. For the first time Webber realizes how mortally afraid people are to face the truth." (from front flap) The monumental novel by Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938), the second (after The Web and the Rock, 1939) to be published posthumously after his tragic death from pneumonia-tuberculosis shortly before his 38th birthday. As we Third Minds know, Wolfe was a direct precursor to the Beat Generation & especially Jack Kerouac, who idolized & was influenced by Wolfe & his life-inspired works. Lawrence Ferlinghetti commented that only a very short period separated Wolfe's exploration of America from a speeding train to Kerouac & Co.'s from a speeding car. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first edition as stated on copyright page, first printing as indicated by "H-P" on copyright page, $3.00 price on front flap & all other points we are aware of. A true classic collectible, among the proverbial "Great American Novels," in exceptionally very fine condition: Book with only a touch of rubbing & very mild, light spotting to front, back covers & spine with all lettering & graphics on front cover & spine completely bright & intact; very light wear & tiny areas of fading to blue cloth at edges & corners of same; very light browning to side edge of text block (untrimmed as issued); much less even & with sparse, light spotting at lower edge of same; mild browning & some tiny, light spots (particularly a small cluster at middle near spine) to upper edge of same. Interior very fine with only very light browning & sparse spotting to blank paste-downs & endpapers; otherwise all leaves appear substantially mint. Unrestored dust jacket very fine with only very slight rubbing, scratching, occasional spotting & short, faint creasing to front, back covers, spine & flaps; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases at thin edges & corners of same. We note that all corners of both flaps are very slightly clipped, apparently as issued since price is intact above a line of dashes at upper corner-edge of front flap. Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #4481]

Price: $400.00