THE ROAD BETWEEN

New York: The Vanguard Press, Inc., 1949. First Edition. . Hardcover. Very Good to Near Fine/Good Plus. Farrell is best known today for his early 1930s success with the Studs Lonigan trilogy, the story of a young, Irish-Catholic boy growing up in poverty in Chicago and unable to escape. But Farrell also wrote two other series of novels -- the O'Neill-O'Flaherty pentology (issued late 1930s early 1940s with the final book issued in 1953) dealing with generational conflicts and centered on Danny O'Neill, a young man who, unlike Studs Lonigan, had the talent to escape his poverty-ridden beginnings. Farrell's final trilogy, is named the Bernard Carr series after its main character, a young writer with a pregnant wife who married him expecting better things than the one-bedroom basement apartment in a poor section of New York. Carr never doubts his eventual success and unlike his wife, Elizabeth, is able to totally ignore his current circumstances and its effect on his wife. "The Road Between" is the second novel in the Bernard Carr series. This copy is a First Edition, First Printing. About 5 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches, 463 pages bound in tan cloth-covered boards with a black line design utilizing Farrell's initials on the front cover. The spine shows a triangular decoration in black boxing the title and the author's and publisher's names, also in black. The top edge of the text is tinted dark blue. The dustjacket shows the title, author and other lettering on the front panel in black, bordered top and bottom by a city landscape design in red, grey and white that continues on to the spine. The back panel has a small photo of Farrell and three printed paragraphs quoting the author on his writing "prinicples." The boards show only very minor wear and spine bumping and a single tiny dent on the lower edge of the front cover. The text shows light soiling on the text block edges but is o/w clean, unmarked and complete with no tears, dogearred pages or remainder marks. The dustjacket shows considerable chipping and other edgewear, especially at the spine ends, with a pair of 1-inch tears on the top edge of the back panel. That said, the dj, now protected in a mylar sleeve, remains about 95% whole with no loss of any significant lettering or design elements. It is not price-clipped. Overall, a collectable example of Farrell's later work.