Cheever, John

The Wapshot Chronicle

New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1957. First Edition. Hardcover. "St. Botolphs had been an inland port in the great days of the Massachusetts sailing fleets, and now it was left with a few small industries, the river, the east wind, a fine show of houses on River Street and the Wapshots. For generations Wapshot men had sailed from St. Botolphs to seek their fortunes on the seven seas. But when Leander Wapshot's sons left home, it was by train, and their search for a fortune or a way of life took them to furnished rooms in Washington and New York, to trout streams, a Pacific island, a rocket-launching station and a feudal castle founded on a five-and-ten-cent-store fortune. In Leander the future took its impress from the past, and The Wapshot Chronicle is the story of Leander's heritage from his forebears and his legacy to his sons." (front flap, & from rear flap) The first published novel by John Cheever (1912-1982), the great American author who has been canonized in the Library of America series. This great novel won the prestigious National Book Award for the year following its publication (1958), & has long taken its place as an American literary classic. Hardcover in clipped first-issue dust jacket (with "No. 7430A" printed on front & rear flaps), "First Edition/ B-G" as stated on copyright page. A beloved & truly Great American Novel in its rarest original form; an essential collectible. Book in fine condition with just a touch of rubbing to front, back covers & spine (letters & graphics on spine completely bright & intact); a bit of wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of same; mild browning, rubbing to edges of text block esp. upper edge. Interior fine with mild browning, occasional spotting to blank paste-downs & endpapers; small, quaint vintage bookseller's sticker at lower left margin/corner of front endpaper with slight residue therefrom at opposite margin/corner of front paste-down; single name (first or last?) of previous owner written in black ink at upper right margin/corner of front endpaper; very slight browning mostly to blank margins/edges of page leaves; tiny bumps, faint creases at upper corners of a few of same. Dust jacket near-fine with mild browning, fading & rubbing to front, back covers, spine & flaps; light wear & some tiny bumps, creases, & a few very short, mostly closed tears at edges & corners of same with miniscule loss of paper or surface paper esp. at corners. Fine / Near Fine. [Item #5135]

Price: $200.00