[CALIFORNIA FICTION] NORRIS, Frank

Vandover and the Brute

Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1914. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (19.5cm). Ribbed orange-brown cloth, titled in gilt on spine and front cover; 354pp. Aside from some inconspicuous spotting to text block fore edge, a very clean and bright copy, Near Fine and unusual thus.

The last novel published under Norris's name, originally written in 1895 while he was a student at Harvard but left unpublished at the time of his death in 1902. In his foreword, Charles G. Norris, who prepared the manuscript for publication, describes at some length the loss of the original manuscript and its rediscovery in a warehouse in 1913. The tale of sexual degeneracy and social disintegration of a young San Francisco gentleman in the Gilded Age did not sit well with pre-WW1 readers, and the book met with poor reviews and poorer sales, despite Norris's reputation as a pioneer and master of American naturalism. A second printing was announced by the publisher in 1914 but apparently never happened. BAL 15046. BAIRD 1883.

Price: $100.00

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