Light In August.

FAULKNER, William [Cormac McCarthy].

Item Number: 138813

New York: Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, 1932.

First edition, first issue, with first printing statement on copyright page, and “Jefferson” for “Mottstown” on page 340, line 1; first-issue binding, lettered in blue and orange. Octavo, original cloth. From the library of Cormac McCarthy with his ownership signature to the front free endpaper. McCarthy has been widely praised as not only a disciple of Faulkner, but his literary heir. Both authors’ biblically influenced prose formed the basis of a large body of tragically intertwined, powerful narratives filled with a nostalgic yearning for an earlier, ancestral, rural America. In many ways, McCarthy picked up where Faulkner left off, further exploring and elaborating on a number of core themes including the concept of sin (including its consequences, transference, and ritualistic attempts to purify it), justification of (often savage and sacrificial) violence, and disillusionment with the moralist ideology of modern civilization. McCarthy’s writing style, particularly in his earlier work, owed much to Faulkner – in its dense prose, use of dialect, vivid imagery and descriptions of the American landscape, and fluid ambiguity of time and place. Published only three years after William Faulkner’s death and edited by Albert Erskine, who worked with Faulkner at Random House, McCarthy’s debut novel, The Orchard Keeper was awarded the 1966 William Faulkner Foundation Award and contains perhaps his most overt use of Faulknerian literary devices and mannerisms. Faulkner’s influence on McCarthy’s themes and style are also apparent to a notable degree in his fourth novel, Suttree (reminiscent of The Sound and the Fury) as well as his popular novels All the Pretty Horses, Blood Meridian, The Crossing, and The Road, where his descriptions of southern Appalachia evoke Faulkner’s fictional Mississippi county of Yoknapatawpha. Near fine in a good dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco chemise and clamshell box. Petersen A13a; Howard A13.1a; Massey 103.

One of William Faulkner’s most admired and accessible novels, Light in August reveals the great American author at the height of his powers. Lena Grove’s resolute search for the father of her unborn child begets a rich, poignant, and ultimately hopeful story of perseverance in the face of mortality. It also acquaints us with several of Faulkner’s most unforgettable characters, including the Reverend Gail Hightower, plagued by visions of Confederate horsemen, and Joe Christmas, a ragged, itinerant soul obsessed with his mixed-race ancestry. Powerfully entwining these characters’ stories, Light in August brings to life Faulkner’s imaginary South, one of literature’s great invented landscapes, in all of its unerringly fascinating glory. "No man ever put more of his heart and soul into the written word than did William Faulkner. If you want to know all you can about that heart and soul, the fiction where he put it is still right there" (Eudora Welty).