WINDY McPHERSON'S SON.
New York: John Lane Company | London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1916. Original orange-brown cloth decorated in black and gilt.
First Edition of Sherwood Anderson's first (and most autobiographical) novel -- a rags-to-riches-to-unhappiness tale of an Ohio newsboy, complete with alcoholic father and martyr mother who in trying to feed her children works her way into an early grave. Sam McPherson strives for and achieves fortune, only to realize (after driving his father-in-law to suicide) that there is more to life than money. In 1922, this novel would be re-published with a different ending (less vague, more optimistic -- though many have argued that either ending is too unlikely). In any case, this was Anderson's initiation into the art of writing fiction -- which would come to fruition three years later, with WINESBURG, OHIO (1919).
This is a fine copy of this early midwestern novel (complete with ear of corn on front cover and spine). Housed in a (slightly wrinkled) slipcase with leather label. Item #14713
Price: $295.00