BURNING BRIGHT: A Play in Story Form

New York: Viking Press, 1950. First edition. Very good in very good jacket.. First printing of Steinbeck's experimental work, an amalgam of play and novel similar to OF MICE AND MEN. Expanding on the idea first developed in OF MICE AND MEN - adapting aspects of the theater into the structure of a novel - Steinbeck wrote this "play in story form" about the birth of a long-awaited child. The book was staged the same year with Rodgers and Hammerstein as producers. Neither the book nor the play did well, but Steinbeck didn't seem to mind: "We were kicked around like dogs, but I still want to do it. This shows a truly pure quality of stupidity. Just nuts. I'm so fascinated by everything about the theatre I don't really care if the show's a flop" (Interview, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, 18 September 1952). 7.5'' x 4.75''. Original full tan cloth, front board and spine lettered in red. Original unclipped ($2.50) dust jacket in yellow, grey, and orange. Orange topstain. 159, [1] pages. Ink owner inscription to front fly leaf. Jacket moderately edge worn with areas of paper loss to upper front corner and at spine ends. Lines of creasing at spine. Cloth lightly worn, rounded at corners. Offsetting to endpaper gutters.