“ONE OF LITERATURE’S MOST CONVINCING PORTRAITS OF CHILDHOOD”: THE YEARLING, SIGNED BY BOTH RAWLINGS AND N.C. WYETH

RAWLINGS, Marjorie Kinnan. The Yearling. With Illustrations by N.C. Wyeth. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1939. Large octavo, original green cloth, top edge gilt, pictorial endpapers, uncut, custom slipcase with label from original slipcase. $4000.

First signed “Pulitzer Prize Limited Edition,” one of 770 copies signed by Rawlings and Wyeth, the first edition to be illustrated by N.C. Wyeth, with 14 beautiful full-page color plates.

Set in rural Florida during the 1870s, this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic tells the story of a 12-year-old boy who befriends a fawn. In The Yearling, Rawlings "produced one of literature's most poignant and convincing portraits of childhood" (DAB). This signed limited edition includes two additional black-and-white illustrations done in charcoal and wash, and a facsimile of a letter hand-written by Wyeth during a trip to Florida with Rawlings. Preceded by the American and London trade editions of 1938. Second-issue binding B; according to Tarr, 520 copies were bound in the more expensive binding A in 1939; "280 more copies were bound in August 1952… these new bindings may in fact be the cheaper binding (B)." Without original chemise and slipcase; the custom slipcase has the spine label from the original slipcase affixed. Allen & Allen, 216. Tarr A3.3.a.

Fine condition.