Inscribed Copy in Variant Jacket
The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston
Publication: Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1929. Later printing.
Notes: A nicely inscribed copy of an early printing of this Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of one of the founding fathers of Texas.
"One of the great biographies in American historical literature, this remains one of the most readable of Texas books. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, it has stood the test of time"—John Jenkins, Basic Texas Books.
"It's Sam with the dirty rawhide on, but not a juiced-up revisionist's debunking"—A. C. Greene, The Fifty Best Books on Texas, p. 81.
Edition + Condition: An early printing, without the first edition statement on the copyright page and no notice of the Pulitzer Prize printed on the jacket. A good to very good copy in red cloth stamped in gilt on the spine; remnants of tape and a magazine article about the James family are on the rear free endpaper, lower front corner bumped. In a good to very good example of the second state jacket, which has no illustration and instead prints excerpts of reviews in blue ink on golden-rodpaper. The jacket is worn at the edges. A portion of an orange bellyband announcing the Pulitzer Prize is laid in (the prize was announced in May).
This copy is inscribed: "For my dear friends Clarice & Karl W. Detzer who have two homes, theirs & ours. Mark James. Pleasantville, NY. August 30 1930." At the time, Karl Detzer was a short-story writer for pulps and other magazines.
A great association copy of a Pulitzer Prize–winner that is seldom found in the first edition.
Item No: #365254
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