BECK, Warren “The Blue Sash” [The Antioch Press, 1941] Association Copy, Signed 1st

BECK, Warren. The Blue Sash.

Yellow Springs, OH: The Antioch Press, 1941. First edition. 8” x 5.5”. Presentation, association copy inscribed by Beck on the front free endpaper to Ernest F. Amy, longtime professor of English at Ohio Wesleyan University, with an additional notation identifying the volume as “one of the first ten copies” of the print run. The title page is additionally signed by Beck. Retaining a coherent group of related material documenting Beck’s December 1952 appearance at Ohio Wesleyan University, including: a two-page autograph letter signed by Beck on Lawrence College letterhead while writing from Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, New York, discussing a proposed December 9–10 campus visit, contemporary fiction, and Faulkner (“a bit of a specialty of mine”); the original mailing envelope; a clipped group photograph announcing Beck’s forthcoming appearance, annotated “Coming: Dec. 9–10”; a typed letter from Amy to Beck dated January 1953 reflecting on the success of the visit and inquiring about obtaining a first edition of The Blue Sash; and a later clipped biographical notice on Beck containing references through 1955. Moderate wear and toning to the book and accompanying
material. Very Good.

A compact but unusually coherent documentary group tracing Warren Beck’s professional relationship with Ohio Wesleyan professor Ernest F. Amy and Beck’s December 1952 campus appearance. The sequence of material reconstructs the invitation, publicity, lecture visit, subsequent correspondence, and Amy’s eventual acquisition of the inscribed first edition itself. Particularly notable is the ALS written while Beck was in residence at Yaddo and teaching at Lawrence College, discussing “the critical judging of contemporary fiction,” distinctions between “literary” and “popular” fiction, and his developing Faulkner specialization.