NIGHT RIDER

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1939. Near fine in very good plus dust jacket.. First edition of Robert Penn Warren's first novel, the story of a young man's fall from grace during the Kentucky Tobacco Wars. Literary critic, poet, and novelist, Robert Penn Warren contributed to a number of genres with ease. NIGHT RIDER, his first published novel, thematically anticipates his later works: it focuses on life in the US South, moral quandries that lead to tragic irony, and the corruption of leaders, leaving characters to struggle against the inevitable. Warren would go on to win Pulitzer Prizes for both a novel and and for poetry - the only person to have won in both categories. This is an attractive copy of an important work in Warren's oeuvre. 8.25'' x 5.25''. Original grey cloth boards with red text. Original unclipped ($2.50) pictorial dust jacket. 460 pages. Jacket with light edgewear, some sunning to spine; two tape repairs to verso. Binding with a touch of edgewear, a bit of bumping to spine ends. Sharp.