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Nathanael West
Details
Galley proofs, The Day of the Locust
Nathanael West
WEST, Nathanael (1903-1940). Galley proofs, The Day of the Locust, [New York] 1938-39.
81 pp., 600 x 160mm, complete (a little edgwear, particularly to final page which has some chipping and wear); stamped "duplicate proof" with publisher's label giving publication date as 16 May 1939 and printer's notes in red pencil and graphite; further docketed "Day of Locust" in pencil. [With:] Autograph note in West's hand: "For Ed Dahlberg — Cellmate / Nathanael West / c/o S.J. Perelman,190 1⁄2 Orchid Cove Hollywood CA." Custom box. Provenance: Edward Dahlberg, 1900-1977, writer (note).
The galley proofs for West's 1939 darkly satirical novel set in Los Angeles. The story follows protagonist Tod Hackett, a set designer and graduate of the Yale School of Fine Arts, as it examines Hollywood's unattainable fantasies. Edward Dahlberg (1900-1977) was an American essayist, novelist, and critic who spent the 1920s as an expatriate in Paris with the likes of Joyce, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and many others of the so-called "Lost Generation." West's enclosed note commemorates their time sharing a jail cell along with other picketing writers who were protesting a Klein-Ohrbach's retail workers strike in c.1934-35. West died in a car accident the year after Day of the Locust was published, at the age of 37. Manuscripts and proofs of his work are rare at auction; according to ABPC and RBH, no material relating to Day of the Locust has been sold.
Nathanael West
WEST, Nathanael (1903-1940). Galley proofs, The Day of the Locust, [New York] 1938-39.
81 pp., 600 x 160mm, complete (a little edgwear, particularly to final page which has some chipping and wear); stamped "duplicate proof" with publisher's label giving publication date as 16 May 1939 and printer's notes in red pencil and graphite; further docketed "Day of Locust" in pencil. [With:] Autograph note in West's hand: "For Ed Dahlberg — Cellmate / Nathanael West / c/o S.J. Perelman,190 1⁄2 Orchid Cove Hollywood CA." Custom box. Provenance: Edward Dahlberg, 1900-1977, writer (note).
The galley proofs for West's 1939 darkly satirical novel set in Los Angeles. The story follows protagonist Tod Hackett, a set designer and graduate of the Yale School of Fine Arts, as it examines Hollywood's unattainable fantasies. Edward Dahlberg (1900-1977) was an American essayist, novelist, and critic who spent the 1920s as an expatriate in Paris with the likes of Joyce, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and many others of the so-called "Lost Generation." West's enclosed note commemorates their time sharing a jail cell along with other picketing writers who were protesting a Klein-Ohrbach's retail workers strike in c.1934-35. West died in a car accident the year after Day of the Locust was published, at the age of 37. Manuscripts and proofs of his work are rare at auction; according to ABPC and RBH, no material relating to Day of the Locust has been sold.
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