First The Blade

May Merrill Miller

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1938

Stated First Edition. This is a fairly rare book. It's in very nice condition. You can see the covers in the photos. They are very clean. The gilt lettering on the spine is very bright. The same goes for the design. There isn't much wear on the covers, a few tiny tears at both spine ends. The cover edges are in very good shape. So are the corners. I'm not seeing any rubbing. The top page edge has a maroon topstain. It looks very good. The middle page edge is deckled or rough-cut. They did a very good job. Scrolling through the pages, I haven't found any issues with the middle edges. The book is square and the spine is straight. The binding is very solid, despite the book running 631 pages. The pages are nicely tight from cover to cover and the covers are nicely tight as well. The pages are exceptionally clean. Scrolling through, I wasn't able to find even one instance of soiling, though I can't guarantee that I didn't miss something minor. In either event, they are remarkably clean. There isn't any foxing on the pages, not that you would expect there to be. There is a vertical strip of tanning on both sides of the juncture between the inside covers and end papers, also is small bit of tanning/toning at the margins of each. Around the top corner of the blank front end paper there is a tiny square shape, something must've been adhering there at one point. Below that there are but appears to be two penciled or penned words. They are very light and illegible. The pages are in very good shape. I spent a good deal of time going through them. I found four pages with the bottom corner folded in. I straightened them out. There is a small crease there now, not near the print. Similarly, I straightened out probably a handful or so of folded-in top corners, again leaving a small crease, not near the print. I also found a tiny nick at the top edge of four or five consecutive pages, no tear. A half-dozen or so early pages, including the title page, have a thin and light impression (colorless) coming up from the bottom edge, something would have pressed lightly against these pages there, looks more like a crinkle than a crease. There are no markings in the book. There are no attachments of any kind. And the two illegible words on the blank frontispiece represent the only writing to be found anywhere. 'May Merrill Miller was born in 1894 in Hanford, California. Growing up the granddaughter of early California pioneers, Miller was privy to many stories of the earliest California settlers. Consequently, Miller gained an intimate understanding of the early southern San Joaquin landscape and the domestic life of those pioneers who settled there. Miller attended the University of California and the University of Minnesota and participated in the prestigious Bread Loaf Writers' Conference hosted by Middlebury College. At this conference, Miller studied with western historian and novelist Bernard DeVoto and subsequently converted the various stories she heard growing up into a unified novel. The resulting novel, First the Blade, was published in 1938. The novel depicts the daily life of Californian pioneers through the perspective of a fictional woman settler. The novel also includes a fictionalized account of the Mussel Slough gunfight that resulted from a land dispute between local pioneer settlers and the Southern Pacific Railroad. The novel is praised for its unique female perspective on pioneer life as well as for its verisimilitude and detailed realism. In 1949, Miller published a book of poetry entitled Mother Lode, 1849 to 1949. UCLA presents the May Merrill Miller Award each year to a female student for work in fiction or poetry.'. Seller Inventory # 004988

Bibliographic Details

Title: First The Blade
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Publication Date: 1938
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition