Their Blood Is Strong

San Francisco: Simon J. Lubin Society of California, Inc, 1938. LANGE, Dorothea. Full Description:

STEINBECK, John. [LANGE, Dorothea]. "Their Blood Is Strong." San Francisco: Simon J. Lubin Society of California, Inc., 1938.

First edition, first issue in book form. Illustrated by Dorothea Lange's photos. Octavo

(8 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches; 225 x 150 mm). [4], 35, [1, blank] pp. With Lange's iconic black and white photographs of migrant workers on front and back wrappers and two photos of camps in the text.

Original photographic wrappers. Front wrapper with some minor creasing to outer corner. Back wrapper with some minor chipping along fore-edge. Still, a near fine copy of this fragile item. Housed in a black morocco portfolio.

First publisherd as articles for the San Francisco News, this pamphlet was a precursor to Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

"When he [Steinbeck] wrote for serial publication in the San Francisco News the articles about the migratory agricultural workers in California he has already become established by his success with fiction, "Tortilla Flat" and "of Mice and Men". His articles had extensive reading. They helped people to realize the deplorable conditions that existed nearby, in many instances right under their eyes. It was inevitable that they should be republished together." (From the Introduction)

"The Simon J. Lubin Society is deeply appreciative of the cooperation received from the San Francisco News, who in October 1936 published the seven chapters that for the bulk of this pamphlet; and especially grateful to John Steinbeck for his permission to use this material. The photographs were taken for the Farm Security Administration by Dorthea Lange." (From the Colophon).

Goldstone & Payne A10.

HBS 69032.

$2,000.