STEINBECK, John

HROZNY HNEVU [THE GRAPES OF WRATH]

Prague: Sfinx, 1946. Second Czech Edition. Hardcover. Dustwrapper designed by Jaroslav Šváb. Uncommon edition of this winner of the Pulitzer Prize. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by Steinbeck on the last page of text located at the foot of the translator's notes in which the translator, Vladimír Procházka, includes an excerpt from a positive review of the translation: "...in reading this translation we forget that it's a translation. How many translations can we say that about?" The inscription is under Procházka's printed name and is to him: "For Vladimir Prochazka/Thank you/John Steinbeck." Procházka, a lawyer and communist, was forced to withdraw from his political activities during the Nazi occupation and translated THE GRAPES OF WRATH, along with works by James Joyce and Bernard Shaw. In 1946, he was elected to parliament as a communist and helped draft the new Czechoslovak constitution. Steinbeck most likely inscribed this on one of his two trips to communist Czechoslovakia, or possibly in the U. S. when Procházka was serving as the Czechoslovak ambassador to the United States. Near Fine in a Near Fine dustwrapper. Item #020854

Price: $2,500.00