Babbitt.
LEWIS, Sinclair.
Babbitt.
Rare first edition of Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt; inscribed by Him
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922.
$3,500.00
In Stock
Item Number: 148120
First edition, first issue of this famous satirical work, with “Purdy” for “Lyte” on Page 49 line 4 & “my” on line 5. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on a page bound in, “To Claire Flynn with the affection of Grace & Sinclair Lewis.” Octavo, bound in full morocco by the Harcourt Bindery with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt ruling to the front and rear panel, gilt inner dentelles stamp-signed by the Harcourt Bindery, hand-made Italian marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. In fine condition.
With Babbitt (1922) Sinclair Lewis consolidated the reputation he had earned with his first best-selling novel, Main Street (1920). Like Main Street, Babbitt not only became a best seller, but it generated controversy, became a US cultural phenomenon, and eventually contributed a new word to the language. (Although the word “babbitt” has come to mean a “smugly conventional person,” George F. Babbitt is a more complex individual – and more troubled – than the dictionary definition would suggest.) Babbitt is the story of a middle-aged real estate broker who faces a series of psychological crises that reveal to him the emptiness of his superficially successful and prosperous life (Fleming).
