Cannery Row by Steinbeck, John - 1945

New York: Viking Press, 1945 First edition, first issue. Presentation; signed and inscribed by Steinbeck on front free endpaper: "For Alan Green / with many thanks / John Steinbeck." Publisher's canary yellow cloth (second state), lettered in dark blue; in the original pictorial dust jacket designed by Arthur Hawkins, Jr., with an illustration of Cannery Row by Hawkins to the front panel, titled in yellow. Very good book, with some soiling to cloth, light toning to spine, a touch of rubbing to spine ends, lightly bumped corners, and light offsetting to endpapers; near fine unclipped dust jacket, with mild toning to spine and extremities, light wear to spine ends, and a bit of chipping to top left corner of front flap. Overall, a lovely copy, very scarce with Steinbeck's signature. Cannery Row is a Depression-era novel set in Monterey, California. The story takes place on a grungy street with "the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots, junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses." The actual street in Monterey has since been renamed "Cannery Row" in honor of this iconic novel. The plot features an unlikely cast of characters, including a marine biologist, a grocer, a restaurateur, and a group of local vagabonds. Cannery Row showcases Steinbeck's talent for making even the most unsavory characters relatable and endearing; Mack and his group of homeless squatters are described as "gentlemen and philosophers united by a common dislike of a steady job and a mutual feeling for the pleasures of living according to their lights." Much of the inspiration for this novel and its 1954 sequel Sweet Thursday were drawn from the author's own life; Steinbeck was born in Monterey County, grew up knowing fishermen and other laborers, and was close friends with a marine biologist, Ed Ricketts, who worked on the real Cannery Row. . Signed by Author. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Dust Jacket Included.