The Stranger; a novel of the Big Sur [*SIGNED*]

New York: William Morrow and Company. Near Fine in Very Good dj. 1942. First Edition. Hardcover. [a nice solid copy, very light wear to the extremities, tiny tear in cloth at top of spine, light browning to fore-edge; jacket shows wear (tiny tears, a bit of creasing) along top and bottom edges, shallow chipping at spine ends (no text affected)] (illustrated endpapers) INSCRIBED to friends ("Mudge" and "Herbert") and SIGNED (as "The Stranger") by the author on the half-title page, at "Shanagolden / Big Sur, California / Sept. 13th, 1942," several weeks prior to the publication date. The novel is set in the 1870s and tells the story of a rugged man of action and his mail-order bride; eventually (1973) there was a movie version, "Zandy's Bride," starring Gene Hackman and Liv Ullmann. The author's first novel, it is not only a key work of California fiction, but it also had a profound effect on the life of the writer who would come to be most identified with Big Sur: Henry Miller. Miller read the book a few weeks after first coming to the area, and years later he wrote: "Till then I had been only a visitor. The reading of this 'little classic' ... made me more than ever determined to take root here." (Baird & Greenwood 2136) Signed by Author .