For Authors Only and Other Gloomy Essays (First Edition)

Doubleday, Doran & Company, Garden City, NY, 1935. First Edition. Hardcover (Original Cloth). Very Good+ Condition/Good. Illustrator: Robert B. Haberstock. Book A collection of 19 essays, including the title essay in which Roberts criticizes the Pulitzer Prize Committee for awarding the prize intended for novels dealing with American life and standards to works that lacked an American context. According to Jack Bales (1993), these essays had been rewritten for this book from originals published in the Saturday Evening Post (p. 64). According to reports, the book sold poorly with only 5,603 copies printed, which Roberts attributed to the title (Bales, p. 141n27). Thirteen of these essays were included in the later collection, The Kenneth Roberts Reader. The linecut illustrations are by Robert B. Haberstock, who designed a number of book dust jackets from the 1930s into the 1950s. Note: I have a large selection of Kenneth Roberts books and related materials. Contact me if you are looking for something in particular. Size: 7.5"-8" - Small Octavo (Sm. 8vo). 446 pages. Item Type: Book. Text block is tight, bright and, other than a bookseller price in pencil on the front free end paper, unmarked. Hardcover bound in dark blue cloth embossed with a diamond and star pattern with a device in bright gilt on the front cover and title in bright gilt on the spine. Corners are sharp with very little wear. Also, light wear at the head and foot of the spine. The unclipped ($2.50) dust jacket is in Good only condition, primarily because of the cellophane tape used to stabilize a couple of tears along the top edge and a larger tear at the bottom of the rear fold, as well as reinforcing the fold for the front flap. The tape was applied to the back side, but the glue has darkened corresponding patches on the front of the jacket. It has been protected in a sleeve for some time and now is in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. The top page edges are stained in a light blue. The outside edges are deckled (rough cut) and browned. Illustrator: Robert B. Haberstock. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Essays & Literary Criticism; United States; 1930s; Main Picture: Roberts (1935), For Authors Only (First Edition) - Front panel and spine of the dust jacket. Picture 2: Roberts (1935), For Authors Only (First Edition) - Rear cover of spine (showing dark patch at the top corner from the tape on the back) and page edges. Picture 3: Roberts (1935), For Authors Only (First Edition) - Front cover and spine. Picture 4: Roberts (1935), For Authors Only (First Edition) - Rear cover and page edges. Picture 5: Roberts (1935), For Authors Only (First Edition) - Title page with inset of copyright and First Edition notice from the verso. Picture 6: Roberts (1935), For Authors Only (First Edition) - Table of Contents. Picture 7: Roberts (1935), For Authors Only (First Edition) - Sample essay sub-title page with linecut by illustrator Robert B. Haberstock. Picture 8: Roberts (1935), For Authors Only (First Edition) - Sample essay sub-title page with linecut by illustrator Robert B. Haberstock. Picture 9: Roberts (1935), For Authors Only (First Edition) - Sample essay sub-title page with linecut by illustrator Robert B. Haberstock. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 1341. .