The Inhabitants.

Presentation copy. presentation copy inscribed: 'For / Lambert Davis / who should have had his hand / as well as his name / in this book / Wright Morris / Bryn Mawr / Sept. 22, 1946'. After which, a pencil note is added stating that Lambert Davis was Morris's editor at Harcourt Brace for his first book.

Wright Morris was born and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Later, after leaving the Midwest, he began to write reminiscences of the people and landscape in his journal. In 1938, he made a cross-country trip from California to Philadelphia and was struck by the houses, barns, churches, grain elevators and other rural pre-war buildings that dotted the Midwest landscape. In 1941, he was given a Guggenheim Fellowship grant to work on The Inhabitants, which pairs photographs of exterior views and details of these buildings with short pieces of prose relating to these photographs. At the time of publication, there were few precedents for such a combination of text and photographs. A description on the rear panel states: 'To get the full impact of the book … the photographs and the text must be considered as one–they must be "taken in" concurrently. The pictures do not "illustrate" the text, they are part of it, and the same is true of the "soundtrack"–the words.'

First edition, presentation copy inscribed on the dedication page; 4to (279 x 227 mm, 11 x 9 in); black-and-white photographs printed in relief halftone, occasional light foxing; black coated endpapers, tan cloth-covered boards, titles stamped to spine in black and to upper side in blind, outline of 'The' in the title on the upper board outlined in ink, lightly toned and marked, hinges starting, photo-illustrated dust-jacket printed in green and black, light wear, small chip to lower panel, light creasing to head of spine, a very good copy in a near-fine supplied jacket; [112]pp.

Regards à travers Le Livre 88; The Book of 101 Books pp122–3; Auer Collection p318.