First Editions – Page 6

Category: First Editions (Page 6 of 6)

Many of The Long Valley stories were written at Steinbeck’s childhood home in Salinas, California. Unemployed and with little money earned from his previous publishing efforts, Steinbeck cared for his mother after she suffered a stroke. Not a natural caregiver, Steinbeck found the situation quite challenging. While his wife and father carried on with their daily lives, he stayed at home. Steinbeck later commented that it was this very hardship that pressed him to produce his highest quality work yet: short stories composed in three old ledger notebooks he found in his father’s office.

The early twentieth century was the golden age of the short story and many writers established their reputation with the form; Steinbeck used it to perfect his craft. The Depression Era market supported the affordable sale of a single story to the average American. Many of The Long Valley stories were originally published on their own in popular periodicals like the Saturday Evening Post or The Atlantic Monthly or as limited editions.

Steinbeck’s friend and editor, Pascal Covici, gathered up the writer’s best short fiction, including “The Chrysanthemums”–one his most anthologized works—and all four stories that comprise “The Red Pony,” for The Long Valley collection. Covici left behind his own failed publishing house and took Steinbeck with him to Viking Press in order to publish The Long Valley. Artist Elmer Hader illustrated the dust jacket and would go on to conceive the art for The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and The Winter of Our Discontent.

In 1938, The Long Valley listed advanced sales at an impressive 8,000 copies. While this print run was much higher than any of his previous publications, it is much smaller than any of his books that followed. Today, The Long Valley is often overlooked in its value for collectors and in its display of Steinbeck’s talent as a short story writer.

Written by Lisa Newman, A version of this column was published in The Clarion-Ledger’s Sunday Mississippi Books page.

“Welty penned Natchez short story collection during WWII”

By Lisa

On November 18, 2014

In Fiction, First Editions, Lisa's First Editions, Southern Fiction

The Wide Net by Eudora Welty. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. 1943.

While Eudora Welty composed “A Still Moment,” one of eight stories in The Wide Net, the noise of World War II surrounded her. In 1941, the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School was located at Hawkins Field in Jackson. As a further reminder of the time, the 1943 first edition of The Wide Net and Other Stories bears an advertisement for war bonds:

“This book, like all books, is a symbol of liberty and the freedom for which we fight. You, as a reader of books, can do your share in the desperate battle to protect those liberties. Buy War Bonds.”

Three real-life characters converge on the Natchez Trace in “A Still Moment.” Itinerant preacher Lorenzo Dow in search of souls, James Murrell, a storied outlaw of the Trace, whose mission through murder and crime was to “destroy the present,” and John James Audubon, the great recorder of American birds in their natural habitats, meet beside “a great forked tree” and are transfixed by a snow-white heron.

As Dow, Murrell, and Audubon were in awe of the bird, so Eudora Welty must have been captivated by Audubon’s descriptions of travel and painting up and down the Trace and the Mississippi River during the early 1800s. While recording the birds of the deep South, Audubon visited Natchez where he painted $5 charcoal portraits to support his travels. Further south in Louisiana, he rested in the long-gone Bayou Sara—one of the largest shipping ports between New Orleans and Natchez before 1860–where his wife set up a profitable teaching practice for a short time. Audubon even stopped in Jackson on May 1, 1823 when the capital was only one-year-old. He described the village in the wilderness as “a mean place, a rendezvous for gamblers and vagabonds” in Life of Audubon.

First editions of The Wide Net and Other Stories are scarce in good condition and dust jackets are usually marred, in a somewhat charming way, by faded pink print on the spine.

Written by Lisa Newman, A version of this column was published in The Clarion-Ledger’s Sunday Mississippi Books page.

Loving Lila

By Former Lemurians

On October 10, 2014

In Fiction, First Editions, Newsworthy

There are books that are markers, books that you read at the exact moment when you needed to read them, books that ask the questions you are still trying to form into words, books that change your course.

Seven years ago I picked up Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead for the first time. Seven years ago I wrote my first poem. I just completed my MFA in poetry this summer.

Marilynne Robinson shouldn’t be able to do what she does. It seems impossible to create characters shrouded in mystery yet full of life, characters in doubt and love and life. It is like they grew from the same Iowa soil they seek to tame.

Lila, Robinson’s newest addition to her books set in the small town of Gilead, Iowa (Gilead and Home being the previous) is the best yet. Lila, the Reverend John Ames’ wife, has been a reliable sidekick, a foil to fill in the shadows of other characters of the books. But here, in her own book, an itinerant woman living in a shack outside of Gilead, she is lovely. Whereas the Reverend opened his memories up to us in the pages of Gilead, Lila keeps us in the shadows, slowly unspooling her past as she attempts to sew herself into something new.

If you have never had the pleasure to read Marilynne Robinson, do it now. Although her novels are interwoven, they stand alone. I promise that she reads like nobody you have ever read before.

Random House Book of the Month: Station Eleven

By Former Lemurians

On September 19, 2014

In Fiction, First Editions, Newsworthy

I know many of us have always heard the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Well, thank the book gods above that I judged Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven by its cover. When we got the book in the store, the cover of the book captivated me. I picked it up, read the inside of the dust jacket and thought, “I don’t think I would like this book, so I’ll just let others read it and tell me about it.” However, the rest of the day I longingly looked at the cover and finally broke down and got it. I am so glad that I did.

Station Eleven captivated me from the moment I read the first paragraph. The story takes place in the present, the past, and in a post-apocalyptic future, weaving stories together that are seemingly random. However, the more you read, the more you realize that the random stories and characters are not random at all; they are all linked by a tragic character. I don’t want to give the plot away, nor do I want to write a book report. I do want to tell you that the connections in the book are profound and that Emily Mandel has hit a home run with this novel.

Her writing is impeccable, and even though I sometimes got annoyed with paragraphs without much punctuation or complete thoughts, I was engaged and enamored with her prose. Station Eleven immediately grabbed my attention and did not let it go (this is saying a lot for someone who is A.D.D. to the core.) The main reason that Station Eleven captivated me was the fact that Mandel painted a clear and vivid picture of her characters and their settings. I found myself sitting in the audience, as she painted a picture of the main character playing King Lear in a Toronto theatre. I also found myself among survivors of the post-apocalyptic plague as they sat in their tent cities; or as they traveled along the road playing their instruments.

Also, I thought the way the story was written in a non-linear timeline, moving back and forth through space and time, was brilliant! I’ll be honest: in reading the reviews, I figured I would have a hard time with this in-and-out of time movement, however it’s what kept me engaged.

Station Eleven is one of those books that grabs you in the beginning, and it gets better and better. I was waiting for a letdown; and yet, it never came. It was truly a page-turner and I would recommend it to anyone who loves literature that is graceful yet sometimes unnerving. It is truly a novel that is brilliant, driven, original, and breathtaking!

//EDIT// Station Eleven was just longlisted for the National Book Award! We still have a few signed first editions left, come get yours today!

Written by Justin

The Story of Land and Sea

By Jamie

On August 26, 2014

In First Editions, First Editions Club

Jacket (7)

My favorite books are ones that speak to my heart and head, ones that make me think but also affect my emotions. The Story of Land and Sea is one of these books. With lucid prose, historical and cultural accuracy, and a set of complex yet relatable characters, this debut novel from Jackson native Katy Simpson Smith has been one of the best I’ve read this year.

The novel’s plot follows three generations—John and Helen, their daughter Tabitha, and Helen’s father Asa—as their lives twine and separate and twine together again. Set in coastal North Carolina soon after the revolutionary war, the story’s themes of struggle and discovery mirror our then-fledgling nation’s obstacles of defining itself as something other than a former colony. But it’s more than just a parable for our country: the characters are so compelling and relatable, even for readers seated comfortably nearly four centuries later. John, the center of most of the plots, is a former pirate who marries Helen, daughter of the wealthy landowner Asa. Rather than falling into the trappings of cliché, Smith keeps the plot believable by focusing on the characters’ personalities, all of whom are likable, relatable, yet capable of much unsavoriness. (I’m being vague on purpose. If you want to know what happens, you’ll need to come buy a copy).

The cultural and historical Katy-Smith accuracy of this story is another place my affinity rests. Smith has a PhD in history from UNC, and she applies her knowledge of early America without turning the novel into a textbook. The sentences themselves flow so easily, I found myself lost in the beauty of the writing several times. Here’s an example, focusing on the wedding of John and Helen:

The marriage takes place in the summer, among the heaved-up roots of the live oak, the lone tree that curves over the front lawn, bend and contorted to the shapes the easterly wind made. Moll [a slave] fidgets in a yellow linen dress with two petticoats and holds a spray of goldenrod that she pulled from the back garden; no one else had thought to.

With writing this good, it makes sense that one of the central images in the book is water. Like water, this story, its characters, and its words are fluid and powerful.

Join us tonight at 5:00 as Katy kicks off her national book tour here at Lemuria with a reading and signing for The Story of Land and Sea!

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: Woodworth Chapel at Tougaloo College

By Lemuria

On August 22, 2014

In First Editions, Gift Books, Newsworthy

Written by Seetha Srinivasan

Looking through Jackson: Photographs by Ken Murphy published by Lemuria Books, I was so pleased to see that Tougaloo College’s Woodworth Chapel was included in this book celebrating the city’s landmarks. So when Hannah at Lemuria Books asked if I would post an entry to blog about the book, I accepted with alacrity.

ToogalooChapel_Ext

Woodworth Chapel was built in 1901 by students, and is by far the most iconic structure on the 145-year-old Tougaloo College campus. A major renovation has restored the building to all its original beauty, and it is now on the National Register of Historic Places. As it well should be.

From its earliest days the chapel has been at the center of campus life. Notably during the turbulent sixties, Tougaloo was a haven for activists, and the chapel was the epicenter for the Jackson movement. Many a meeting was held there, and such leaders as Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis spoke at the chapel. I taught English at Tougaloo from 1969 to 1977, and heard memorable speakers like Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith and psychologist Kenneth Clark at the chapel. The chapel is often home to concerts, and after the ancient music group Boston Camerata performed there, their leader said that the group had not performed in a venue with better acoustics. Far and away my most unforgettable experience was being present for Fannie Lou Hamer’s appearance at Woodworth Chapel, as she recounted with power and passion her family’s struggles on the Eastland Plantation and then her political involvement. When she concluded by singing “Nobody Knows the Trouble I have Seen,” there was not a dry eye in the packed chapel.

ToogalooChapelInterior

When we came to Tougaloo in 1969, it was on the edge of Jackson in every sense of the word. In the early 1990’s when the college hosted a lunch for business and community leaders, the venue was filled to capacity, reflecting the changing dynamics of the city. Now with Tougaloo College’s Woodworth Chapel included in this collection of photographs paying homage to Jackson, the integration of the institution, is in a sense, complete.

Tougaloo College has a venerable place in the state’s history and culture, and it is only right that Woodworth Chapel be recognized as one of Jackson’s iconic buildings. Thank you to Ken Murphy and to John Evans for giving this stately structure its due in their beautiful book Jackson.

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com. Please join us in celebrating Jackson on August 5th at 5:00 in Banner Hall!

Category: First Editions (Page 6 of 6)

“The Long Valley in the Golden Age of the Short Story”

“Welty penned Natchez short story collection during WWII”

Loving Lila

Random House Book of the Month: Station Eleven

The Story of Land and Sea

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: Woodworth Chapel at Tougaloo College

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