Description

WHARTON, Edith. Ethan Frome. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1911.

First Edition. First Printing. 8vo. 20 cm tall. pp. [i–vi], [1–2], 3–195, [196] blank; [4] publisher’s advertisements; [2] blanks. Publisher’s full red cloth, gilt lettering to front board and spine; top edge gilt. Copyright page has Scribner device and states “Published October, 1911” with no other printing indications present. Unbattered “wearily” on page 135 (later state shows battered type, per Davis). Lacking the scarce original dust jacket. Garrison A19.I.a. Davis p.14. Smith W-408. Very Good-. No previous owner markings or bookplates, but wear to FFEP possibly caused by erasure or other removal of a prior ownership marking or label. Discreet date stamp on RFEP compatible with ordinary trade handling. No library markings. Spine ends rubbed with mild fraying. Board corners softened and rubbed. Inconspicuous small closed tear to FFEP inner margin.

Edith Wharton’s most famous novella, predating her 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction award for The Age of Innocence (which made her the first woman to win the award).
Adapted for the screen multiple times, most notably in the 1993 feature directed by John Madden and starring Liam Neeson, Patricia Arquette, and Joan Allen.
A syllabus mainstay and a blue-chip Wharton collectible.