WOLFE'S GREAT NOVEL OF HOME & ESCAPE

Wolfe, Thomas (1900–1938)

Look Homeward, Angel [Modern Library Giant G16 — Early Jacketed Issue]

New York: The Modern Library, [c. 1944].

WOLFE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL IN AN EARLY MODERN LIBRARY GIANT ISSUE. 
Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel follows Eugene Gant from childhood through his early adulthood in the fictional Altamont, North Carolina, a setting closely modeled upon Wolfe's native Asheville.

First published by Scribner's in 1929, the novel established Wolfe's reputation through its expansive, intensely autobiographical treatment of family, place, memory, ambition, and the desire to escape the confines of home. This Modern Library Giant edition brought Wolfe's substantial novel into the publisher's inexpensive series of large-format classics.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
+++ MODERN LIBRARY GIANT G16.1. 
+++ Publisher's blue cloth, gilt Modern Library torchbearer device to the front board; spine decorated and lettered in gilt with red title and publisher panels. +++ Octavo, 5.5 by 8.25 inches. Blank endpapers.
+++ Toledano Giant G16.1; Binding G4.
+++ Original pictorial dust jacket, with Wolfe's name and title prominently displayed above a landscape illustration. Jacket priced $1.45 per copy on the front flap. The jacket interior carries a complete list of 291 Modern Library titles, with the Giant series separately listed.

CONDITION: VERY GOOD IN A GOOD DUST JACKET. 
+++ Bindings tight and square. Text clean with light, even age-toning. Minimal shelf handling wear.
+++ Dust jacket unclipped, with losses and wear at the spine tips, additional edge wear and short tears, and soiling to the rear panel. Front panel remains bright and substantially complete, with some surface rubbing. Now protected in a clear Mylar sleeve.

MODERN LIBRARY SIGNIFICANCE — WOLFE ENTERS THE AMERICAN CANON
Look Homeward, Angel was Wolfe's first novel and remains the work most closely associated with his reputation. Its strongly autobiographical portrayal of Eugene Gant and the Gant family transformed Wolfe's own experiences in Asheville into a sprawling portrait of family, adolescence, Southern life, and artistic awakening.

THE MODERN LIBRARY GIANTS. Introduced to accommodate substantial works that exceeded the practical limits of the standard Modern Library format, the Giant series offered major novels and other large texts in a larger binding at a modest price. Look Homeward, Angel appeared as G16, placing Wolfe alongside established works of world and American literature marketed by the Modern Library as durable, affordable reading editions.

GENRES: American Literature, Modernist Fiction, Bildungsroman, Autobiographical Fiction, Southern Literature, Modern Library,
SUBJECTS: Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward Angel, Eugene Gant, Asheville North Carolina,  Coming of Age.

Item #22538

Price: $45.00