East Of Eden [Centennial Edition, First Edition, First Printing] Steinbeck, John

As new condition color illustrated softcover wraps. Includes About the Author and Letter from John Steinbeck to Pascal Covici. The right front cover edge contains a 1/2 inch indentation, the volume is otherwise in new condition. (see photographs). First Edition, First Printing of the Centennial Edition. "The Salinas Valley is in Northern California. It is a long narrow swale between two ranges of mountains and the Salinas River winds and twists up the center until it falls at last into Monterey Bay." - from the rear outer cover. "In his journal, John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book" and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families - the Trasks and the Hamiltons - whose generations helplessly reenact the full of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new, rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives, nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness, enveloped by a mysterious darkness. First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis." - from the inner front cover flap. "A novel planned on the grandest possible scale.One of those occasions when a writer has aimed high and then summoned every ounce of energy, talent, seriousness, and passion of which he was capable.It is an entirely interesting and impressive book." - The New York Herald Tribune. "A fantasia and myth.a strange and original work of art." - The New York Times Book Review. "A moving, crying pageant with wilderness strengths." - Carl Sandburg.