Shadows on the Rock.
Salesman’s Dummy
Cather, Willa. Shadows on the Rock. New York: Knopf, 1931.
8vo.; some damage to the hinge; orange topstain; fore- and bottom edges rough-cut; green cloth; printed labels on spine and front cover; spine faded. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
A rare salesman’s dummy, or sample copy, printing six two-page excerpts from the novel (pp. 3-4, 112-113, 138-139, 169-170, 237-238 and 239-240); the remaining leaves are blank. The printed text is identical to that of the first edition, though typesetting on the title page varies. The first edition contains a front endpaper and half-title page absent from this, as well as book and chapter headings.
With the publisher’s printed notice on the front pastedown introducing the book, announcing the publication date, and providing the details of two limited edition printings to be made available at a higher cost. It reads in part
Seldom has any novel been so widely bought and as dearly loved as Death Comes for the Archbishop. I can assure Miss Cather’s readers that Shadows on the Rock is of the same superb vintage … For me to praise this novel would smack of impertinence. It is enough to say that it is every bit as good as we have come to expect from one whose title to first and foremost of living, if not all, American novelists few would challenge.
Anticipating the success of Shadows of the Rock, Knopf issued a first printing in June of 1931 of 25,700 copies; a second printing of 40,000 followed soon after. Still more copies were issued for the Book-of-the-Month Club, and by the end of 1931, more than 165,000 copies were in circulation.
Only the second salesman’s dummy for a Cather novel we have handled in twenty-five years.
(#7573)
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