God's Little Acre.

New York: The Viking Press,, 1933. A novel that will lift the noses of the sensitive First edition, first printing, uncommon in such excellent condition. The strong sexual themes of the novel caused a sensation upon release, provoking an obscenity trial involving Caldwell and the Viking Press. Despite this, or partly because of it, the book became "one of Caldwell's perennial best-sellers" (ANB). The story was adapted into a film of the same name in 1958. Caldwell's case was dismissed by the judge, who ruled in the book's favour arguing that Caldwell "had chosen to write what he believes to be the truth about a certain group in American life" and that "truth should always be accepted as a justification for literature" (Klevar, p. 136). The book was praised in the Saturday Review: "A novel that will lift the noses of the sensitive, Erskine Caldwell's 'God's Little Acre' is nevertheless a beautifully integrated story of the barren Southern farm and the shut Southern mill, and one of the finest studies of the Southern poor white which has ever come into our literature" (Daniels). Octavo. Original black cloth, spine and front cover lettered and decorated in yellow and green, top edge pink, top and bottom edge trimmed, fore edge untrimmed. With dust jacket. Title page printed in red and black. Top edge spotted, binding square, contents clean; jacket slightly toned, short closed tear at head of spine and rear panel fold, couple of faint marks, unclipped: a near-fine copy in like jacket. Jonathan Daniels, "Farm and Mill", Saturday Review of Literature, February 1933; Harvey Klevar, Erskine Caldwell: A Biography, 1993.