East of Eden. New York: Viking Press, 1952. First Edition. Pp 602. Publisher’s green cloth boards, title lettered in black to upper cover & on label to spine, in original pictorial dust jacket. Neat ownership name to front free endpaper, overall a nice bright copy. Housede in custom solander box.

This first issue dust jacket with the author’s photo printed on the back cover.

Steinbeck said (to his editor/publisher, Pat Covici) of East of Eden ‘I have written each book as an exercise, as practice for the one to come. And this is the one to come. There is nothing beyond this book-nothing follows it. It must contain all in the world I know and it must have everything in it of which I am capable.’