STEINBECK, John

Cup of Gold

New York: Covici Friede, 1936. Item #06592

Steinbeck’s First Book - The Buccaneer Romance of Henry Morgan
Cup of Gold - First Covici Friede Edition, Using McBride Sheets

STEINBECK, John. Cup of Gold. A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History. New York: Covici Friede, 1936.

First Covici Friede edition after the McBride first edition of 1929.

Octavo (7 7/16 x 5 1/8 inches; 188 x 130 mm.). viii, 269, [3, blank] pp.

Publisher’s maroon cloth, spine lettered in gilt, top edge stained blue, others uncut. Very slight fading (1/16 inch) at lower spine and top edges, otherwise fine. In the original first-issue color pictorial dust jacket, with only minimal rubbing to extremities. Overall, a superb example.

Originally published in 1929, Cup of Gold was Steinbeck’s first book - a romantic and imaginative re-creation of the life of the Welsh privateer Sir Henry Morgan. Though quite different in tone from the social realism that would later define his reputation, the novel reveals early evidence of Steinbeck’s narrative power and his fascination with myth, ambition, and the human condition.

This 1936 Covici Friede issue represents the first reappearance of the work following Steinbeck’s growing success in the mid-1930s. The edition is bibliographically significant: it utilizes unsold sheets of the original 1929 Robert M. McBride edition, newly issued with a Covici Friede title-page and binding. In effect, Covici Friede acquired the remaining McBride stock and reissued it under their own imprint. When these sheets were exhausted, later printings were produced independently by Covici Friede, typically in blue cloth.

As such, this edition occupies an important transitional position between the exceedingly rare McBride first issue and the later, more common reprints. Copies in such fresh condition, particularly with the fragile and vividly illustrated dust jacket intact, are increasingly scarce.

A particularly attractive and bibliographically interesting example of Steinbeck’s elusive first book.

Goldstone & Payne A1c.

Price: $3,500.00