Sartoris. by FAULKNER, William - 1929

New York: Harcourt Brace,, 1929. Presentation copy to the author's close childhood friend First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his close childhood friend on the front free endpaper: "To my good friend, Edith, from Bill" and signed by Edith M. Brown beneath the inscription; additionally signed by Faulkner on the title, "William Faulkner 28 May 1929." Brown was one of three children of Calvin S. Brown, Faulkner's romance language professor at "Ole Miss" in the late teens. According to Frederick Karl, Brown was perhaps the most distinguished faculty member at the university, a Renaissance man who taught languages, archaeology, and geology, and collected pestles, mortars, and sleigh bells. He awarded Faulkner with a prize for a poem at the end of school (See Karl, William Faulkner, 1989, pp. 140, 153). Presentation copies of Sartoris are extremely rare. Octavo. Original black cloth, titles to spine and front cover in red, top edge red, others untrimmed. With the Arthur Hawkins designed dust jacket. Housed in a quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: Edith M. Brown (presentation inscription, signature on front free endpaper, dated 1929 at foot); Louis Daniel Brodsky, American poet and Faulkner scholar (then deaccessioned from the Brodsky-Faulkner collection at Southeast Missouri State University); Roger Rechler (his sale, Christie's New York, 11 October 2002, lot 77). Cloth a little rubbed, front hinge weak. An excellent copy in the dust jacket with a few minor nicks. Massey 289; Peterson A5.1.