Raintree County.

LOCKRIDGE, Jr. Ross .

$1,500.00

Item Number: 147648

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1948.

First edition of Ross Lockridge, Jr.’s one and only epic novel, basis for the 1957 film starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, Nigel Patrick and Lee Marvin. Octavo, original publisher’s cloth, gilt titles and detailing to the spine and front panel, pictorial endpapers, frontispiece. Boldly signed by Ross Lockridge, Jr. on the front free endpaper. Near fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket. From the library of noted collector William Strutz with his small bookplate to the front pastedown. Rare and desirable in this condition and signed as Lockridge passed away two months after publication.

Ross Lockridge Jr.'s 'Raintree County' is a novel that explores American identity and history through the life of John Shawnessy, a man navigating love, loss, and the Civil War. Through its vivid depictions of both personal and national struggles, Raintree County weaves together themes of idealism, disillusionment, and the tension between the past and present. Blending personal struggles with larger national themes, the novel uses a symbolic "raintree" to represent the interconnectedness of individuals and the forces shaping their lives.