A Fable.

FAULKNER, William.

Item Number: 111342

New York: Random House, 1954.

First edition of the first novel to win both Pulitzer and National Book Award. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author to his first cousin, “For Sallie Burns with love William.” The recipient Sallie Faulkner Burns was William Faulkner‘s first cousin and was a great friend to Maud, William‘s mother. This was given to her by Faulkner and has remained in the family until now. Additionally signed by Faulkner from Oxford on the title and dated in the year of publication. Very good in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Riki Levinson.

The Fable won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1955. An allegorical story of World War I, set in the trenches in France and dealing ostensibly with a mutiny in a French regiment, it was originally considered a sharp departure for Faulkner. Recently it has come to be recognized as one of his major works and an essential part of the Faulkner oeuvre. Faulkner himself fought in the war, and his descriptions of it "rise to magnificence," according to The New York Times, and include, in Malcolm Cowley's words, "some of the most powerful scenes he ever conceived." Petersen A31b