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Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature
New York: The Viking Press, 1962. Item #06582
"The Writer’s Task Is to Declare and Celebrate Man’s Proven Capacity for Greatness”
Steinbeck’s Nobel Address - A Private Printing
STEINBECK, John Steinbeck. Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature. Stockholm, December 10, 1962. New York: The Viking Press, [1962].
One of 3,200 copies printed for friends of the author and the publisher.
Octavo (8 7/8 x 5 3/4 inches; 226 x 146 mm.). [1-6], 7-10, [11-12] pp. Title-page printed in red and black. Photogravure portrait frontispiece.
Publisher’s original tan wrappers, front cover lettered in red. A fine example.
A stirring and eloquent manifesto delivered at the height of Steinbeck’s career, this Nobel Prize acceptance speech stands among the most concise and powerful statements on the purpose of literature in the twentieth century. Rejecting despair in an age shadowed by nuclear fear, Steinbeck instead affirms the writer’s duty to illuminate “the dark and dangerous dreams of man” while celebrating his enduring capacity for courage, compassion, and love.
Privately printed in a limitation of just 3,200 copies for presentation to friends of the author and publisher, this slim pamphlet was never intended for wide distribution and remains one of the more elusive Steinbeck items. Its simplicity of form - plain wrappers, restrained typography in red and black - only heightens the gravity of the text within.
An uncommon survival in such fresh, fine condition, and a cornerstone piece for any serious Steinbeck collection - representing not merely the honor bestowed, but the philosophy behind it.
Goldstone & Payne A40b.
Price: $325.00