Rare Finds - A Guide to Rare Book Collecting

“Everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this.” - John Steinbeck, regarding East of Eden.

Well before he had published his early masterpieces Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck wanted to write a book about his family and California. Whether it would ultimately become an autobiographical novel or a novelistic family history, this project remained fixed in his mind for years as the big book that he would someday write.

After a decade of less experimental works and distractions, Steinbeck finally sat down to the story of the Hamilton and Trask families and the Salinas Valley he knew so well. “It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my art or craft or profession in all these years,” he wrote. “I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this.”

The story of Cain and Abel provided a thematic framework for his own story, and in copying out Chapter 4 of Genesis in preparation for a chapter of his own, Steinbeck came across his title: East of Eden.

This novel was first issued in a signed limited edition of 1500 copies, 750 of which were reserved for private distribution by the author and publisher. We are pleased to offer a copy from this signed limited edition, with the original slipcase, signed by Steinbeck.