MUILENBURG, Walter J. Prairie
MUILENBURG, Walter J. Prairie. London: The Bodley Head. 1926. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s attractive pale orange cloth lettered and decorated in blue to spine and front board, in the marvellous dust jacket that, though uncredited, might be attributable to Duncan Grant. Publisher’s catalogue to rear, some pages uncut. A very good or better copy, the cloth clean and bright, the topstain bright, the corners and tips a trifle bumped. The binding tight and square, with some light marks and spots to the bottom- and fore-edge. The contents with some mild offsetting to endpapers else clean. The dust jacket priced 7/6 net to spine, complete but for small loss to rear panel top edge, with several small closed tears, rubbing and some light stains, but a remarkable survivor.
The first British edition of this Iowan author’s only novel—the American first published a year prior by Viking. A novel of ideas, the work explores the vast landscape of the Great Plains a la Willa Cather’s work, establishing both the honest beauty and supreme loneliness that such a life brings, and the apparent inability to alter that very life—quite depressing, then. Interestingly, this seems to mirror the author’s own life. Muilenburg, of Dutch Calvinist ancestry, was, together with his siblings, sent on to school and college—something unusual for farming children at the time—and told to determine their lives. James, Walter’s brother, became a renowned theologian, and other siblings also gained PhDs, roles in college education, and beyond. Walter seems to be the mystery of the family, this being his only fictional output aside from a few earlier short story submissions. Besides his roaming, he and his siblings are buried back in Iowa on the prairie from which he likely wrote this novel. Scarce.
MUILENBURG, Walter J. Prairie. London: The Bodley Head. 1926. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s attractive pale orange cloth lettered and decorated in blue to spine and front board, in the marvellous dust jacket that, though uncredited, might be attributable to Duncan Grant. Publisher’s catalogue to rear, some pages uncut. A very good or better copy, the cloth clean and bright, the topstain bright, the corners and tips a trifle bumped. The binding tight and square, with some light marks and spots to the bottom- and fore-edge. The contents with some mild offsetting to endpapers else clean. The dust jacket priced 7/6 net to spine, complete but for small loss to rear panel top edge, with several small closed tears, rubbing and some light stains, but a remarkable survivor.
The first British edition of this Iowan author’s only novel—the American first published a year prior by Viking. A novel of ideas, the work explores the vast landscape of the Great Plains a la Willa Cather’s work, establishing both the honest beauty and supreme loneliness that such a life brings, and the apparent inability to alter that very life—quite depressing, then. Interestingly, this seems to mirror the author’s own life. Muilenburg, of Dutch Calvinist ancestry, was, together with his siblings, sent on to school and college—something unusual for farming children at the time—and told to determine their lives. James, Walter’s brother, became a renowned theologian, and other siblings also gained PhDs, roles in college education, and beyond. Walter seems to be the mystery of the family, this being his only fictional output aside from a few earlier short story submissions. Besides his roaming, he and his siblings are buried back in Iowa on the prairie from which he likely wrote this novel. Scarce.
MUILENBURG, Walter J. Prairie. London: The Bodley Head. 1926. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s attractive pale orange cloth lettered and decorated in blue to spine and front board, in the marvellous dust jacket that, though uncredited, might be attributable to Duncan Grant. Publisher’s catalogue to rear, some pages uncut. A very good or better copy, the cloth clean and bright, the topstain bright, the corners and tips a trifle bumped. The binding tight and square, with some light marks and spots to the bottom- and fore-edge. The contents with some mild offsetting to endpapers else clean. The dust jacket priced 7/6 net to spine, complete but for small loss to rear panel top edge, with several small closed tears, rubbing and some light stains, but a remarkable survivor.
The first British edition of this Iowan author’s only novel—the American first published a year prior by Viking. A novel of ideas, the work explores the vast landscape of the Great Plains a la Willa Cather’s work, establishing both the honest beauty and supreme loneliness that such a life brings, and the apparent inability to alter that very life—quite depressing, then. Interestingly, this seems to mirror the author’s own life. Muilenburg, of Dutch Calvinist ancestry, was, together with his siblings, sent on to school and college—something unusual for farming children at the time—and told to determine their lives. James, Walter’s brother, became a renowned theologian, and other siblings also gained PhDs, roles in college education, and beyond. Walter seems to be the mystery of the family, this being his only fictional output aside from a few earlier short story submissions. Besides his roaming, he and his siblings are buried back in Iowa on the prairie from which he likely wrote this novel. Scarce.