DREISER, Theodore (1871-1945). Sister Carrie. New York: Doubleday, Page and Co., 1900.

DREISER, Theodore (1871-1945). Sister Carrie. New York: Doubleday, Page and Co., 1900.

A fine association copy of the first edition, from the library of writer Harris Merton Lyon, with an autograph letter laid in. Although suppressed by its first publisher on grounds of immorality, Sister Carrie became hugely influential on the American literary scene. Sinclair Lewis, in his 1930 Nobel Prize address, wrote that "Sister Carrie ... came to housebound and airless America like a great free Western wind, and to our stuffy domesticity gave us the first fresh air since Mark Twain and Whitman." Harris Merton Lyon, to whom this copy belonged, wrote for the Dreiser-edited Broadway Magazine. Dreiser nicknamed him "Maupassant, Jr." and included a character sketch of the younger author in his Twelve Men.

Octavo (199 x 129mm). Original red cloth, lettered and ruled in black (rear hinge starting); red quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: Harris Merton Lyon (1882-1916, American short story writer; signature on front free endpaper and marginal notes on pp. 4 and 24) – H. Bradley Martin (bookplate; his sale Sotheby's New York, 30 January 1990, lot 2032).

[With:] DREISER, Theodore. Autograph letter signed ("Theodore Dreiser") to Mr. Dunelca?, New York, 28 August 1911. One page. Referring to the colorplates used by. B. W. Dodge & Co. in the 1907 edition of Sister Carrie.

Pre-Lot Text
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION