First printing of a wartime classic
FAULKNER, William. A Fable. New York: Random House. 1954.
8vo. Dark red publisher's cloth, embossed in black and blind to upper board with three cross designs; lettered in pink and silver to spine, with publisher's device to foot; textured grey endpapers; in the stunning pictorial dust jacket designed by Riki Levinson; pp. [xiii], 4-437, [i]; fine, housed in a custom-made paper slipcase.
First edition, stated first printing, correctly priced $4.75 to the front flap, and dated 8/54.
Faulkner worked for over a decade on A Fable, the classic wartime novel that he considered his magnum opus. Set in France, it covers the period of a week in 1918 when the protagonist, who represents a reincarnation of Jesus, orders his troops not to attack, and in introducing peace to trench warfare effectively stops the war.
The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1955, and the National Book Award for Fiction in the same year.
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