The Grapes of Wrath. by STEINBECK, John - 1939

New York: The Viking Press,, 1939. Octavo. Original buff cloth, titles to spine and pictorial design to boards in dark brown, yellow and brown decorated endpapers, top edge yellow. With the dust jacket. An exceptionally bright copy in the jacket with just a hint of rubbing to spine ends and tips. First edition, first printing, of Steinbeck's masterpiece and one of the great American novels of the 20th century. The fine jacket design is by Elmer Hader, known primarily as a children's book illustrator (joint winner with his wife, Berta Hoerner Hader, of the Caldecott Medal in 1948 for The Big Snow): apparently Steinbeck was so taken with their book Billy Butter (1936) that he requested that Elmer Hader design the cover for The Grapes of Wrath; the illustrator going on to work on two other Steinbeck books, East of Eden (1952 and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961).