"THE PREMIERE LITERARY FIGURE OF THE WEST"

CLARK, Walter Van Tilburg. The Ox-Bow Incident. New York: Random House, (1940). Octavo, original cream cloth, original dust jacket. $1500.

First edition, of Clark’s critically acclaimed first novel, basis for the Oscar-nominated film starring Henry Fonda.

Though born in Maine, Walter Van Tilburg Clark was strongly inspired by the West. It was there he found the "theme and setting for all of his best works." His first novel's tale of a mob that mistakenly lynches three innocent men "established his reputation as the premiere literary figure of the West" (Waldrep, Lynching in America, 180). Recognized as an American classic, it vividly "expressed Clark's moral values directly: he believed in justice, courage, and freedom and that all people have a responsibility to defend them" (ANB). To the New York Times, The Ox-Bow Incident was "what you might call a masterpiece," and Wallace Stegner placed Walter Van Tilburg Clark "on the permanent shelf" of great American writers. Adapted to film in 1943, the Oscar-nominated movie starred Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn. "First printing" stated on copyright page. Yaakov & Greenfieldt, 126. Lamar, 221.

Book fine; only light edge-wear, small closed tear to rear panel of bright near-fine price-clipped dust jacket.