Farmington. 1904, First Edition, Signed & Inscribed by Darrow

First Edition of Farmington Inscribed by Darrow to a Prominent Los Angeles Couple Darrow, Clarence [1857-1938]. Farmington. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1904. vi, 277 pp. Cloth, arts-and-crafts style multi-color vignette and gilt title to front board, gilt title and black-stamped fillets to spine, top-edge gilt, deckle fore and bottom edges. Light rubbing to front board, light wear to corners moderate wear to spine ends, rear hinge just starting at head. Title page with large engraved vignette printed in red and black. "To my friends/ Mr. and Mrs. Force Parker/ with the compliments of/ Clarence Darrow,/ Los Angeles/ Nov 4th-1912" and "signed" in later hand to front free endpaper, image of Henry Fonda from Clarence Darrow clipped from Playbill with manuscript caption "Henry Fonda as Clarence Darrow 1970" affixed to rear free endpaper, title page of Playbill from the June 11-July 6, 1974 run of Clarence Darrow at the Huntington Hartford Theatre, Hollywood, California, tucked behind image. A very good copy. $1,000. * First edition. Farmington is a fictionalized account of the author's youth in Ohio. Though it went through seven editions, it was never a critical or commercial success. This pained Darrow because he thought it was his finest book. Parker, an attorney, and his wife, Frances, were socially prominent, civic-minded citizens of Los Angeles. (An online search of period newspapers associates them with several progressive causes, such as Women's suffrage.) Darrow was in Los Angeles on several occasions in 1912 and 1913 when he was indicted and tried for jury tampering during the McNamera bombing case. He probably met the Parkers during that period. The clippings from Playbill, annotated in Frances's hand, suggest a fond memory of their acquaintance. Hunsberger, Clarence Darrow: A Bibliography 49.…