The Grapes of Wrath. by Steinbeck, John - 1939

New York: The Viking Press,, 1939. First edition, with "First Published in April 1939" on copyright page and first edition notice on front flap of dust jacket. 8vo., publisher's heavy grain decorated beige cloth. A near fine copy in like dustjacket, bright, clean and fresh. Inscribed by the author to the front flyleaf: "For Jules and Joyce and also Joan with love John Steinbeck." Beneath the signature is one of Steinbeck's irreverent flying pig sketches (or "Pigasus" if you prefer), generally an indication that the recipient of his presentation was a close and valued friend,or someone he held in high esteem. In this case it was Jules Buck, and Joyce Gates, with their young daughter, Joan. Jules Buck started out as John Huston's camerman for his wartime documentaries ("Winning Your Wings", "Let There Be Light" etc.) and then grew into an influential producer, both in the US and abroad. Although having a sketchy working relationship with Huston, they reportedly fell out over Huston's anti-Semitic behaviour (Huston later referred to Buck as "My body servant" which is obviously super healthy). He collaborated with Steinbeck on the screenplay of what would end up as Elia Kazan's "Viva Zapata", although uncredited, and later produced "The Killers", "The Naked City" etc. before shifting to Europe to escape the Hollywood witch hunts, founding a production company with Peter O'Toole (Keep Films) and producing such wonders as "Under Milk Wood", "The Day They Robbed The Bank of England", "Lord Jim" and "What's New Pussycat" Joyce Gates was an actress in various small, often uncredited, roles in movies like "Kismet", and their daughter Joan is a notable journalist, writer, and all round renaissance woman by all accounts; at one point the London correspondent for Warhol's "Interview" magazine, the only American to have been editor-in-chief of French Vogue, and the subject of Tom Wolfe's "The Life and Hard Times of a Teenage London Society Girl.", later published in "The Pump House Gang." She started studying acting in 2002, and appeared in Nora Ephron's "Julie and Julia", later writing about the experience of auditioning for Ephron. She fell from grace after Vogue published a decidedly lightweight and grievously ill timed interview with Asma al-Assad, wife of Bashar al-Assad. Frankly she seems fascinating, along with the rest of her family, and I could talk about them all day, but, basically Steinbeck knew them well and inscribed his sad, slow, strange dustbowl novel to them. A really gorgeous and interesting association copy of an undeniably great book. 1939