Beschreibung:

FAULKNER, William (1897-1962). The Marble Faun. Boston: Four Seas Company, 1924. 8 o . Original green paper boards, printed paper label on cover and spine (very slight wear to extremities, labels bright). FIRST EDITION OF FAULKNER'S FIRST BOOK, SIGNED TWICE BY FAULKNER: ("William Faulkner") first on half-title and secondly on final page of text at the conclusion of poem "Epilogue." Four Seas agreed to issue Faulkner's collection of poems in 1923, provided he pay for the manufacturing costs (their standard arrangement). They offered him a royalty arrangement, but Faulkner declined to proceed, at the time not having enough money to carry the costs. Within six months, though, he'd received the encouragement and finanical support of Phil Stone and the twenty-seven year old Faulkner contracted for the printing of 500 copies of The Marble Faun . The book sold poorly and quickly was remaindered. No records survive detailing the number of copies Four Seas actually sold prior to disposing the stock on the remainder market, but an early estimate suggested 100 copies. William Boozer, in William Faulkner's First Book: The Marble Faun (Memphis, 1975), specifically located 56 copies. He considered the existence of other floating copies for a total of near 70, and has since found more, but his total is still short of the 100 copies initially assumed. Though not often associated with poetry, Faulkner in fact considered it his first passion. As late as 1957, seven years after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature, he confessed to a University of Virginia audience, "I wanted to be a poet, and I think of myself now as a failed poet. Not as a novelist but as a failed poet who had to take what he could do." A FINE COPY. Massey 743; Petersen A1a.