The Way Some People Live - Cheever's 1ST Book and 50 similar items

THE WAY SOME PEOPLE LIVE by John Cheever Random House, 1943 First (and only) Edition Condition: Good Plus This collection of 30 stories was Cheever's first book. With three exceptions, none of the stories was ever reprinted at the insistence of Cheever and his family. Apparently due to wartime paper shortages and Cheever's as yet lack of a reputation, only 2750 copies were printed, and the book had only the single printing. This is a halfway decent copy. On the plus side, it's square and tight with solid hinges. The spine has only the slightest fraying at the foot. Page darkening is mainly confined to the inner margins; pages appear otherwise to be mostly white. About the first 130 pages are basically free of flaws. On the negative side, moisture has discolored portions of the red boards: more than a third of the FC, maybe a quarter of the spine and just the lower left corner of the BC. The red dye has bled to the lower corner edges of the inside FC and just the corner of the inside BC. There is also a bit of reddening to the lower corner page edges and corner curl of some front and back pages. The moisture has not affected any of the rest of the book's interior. The lower cover corners are bent and show a bit of wear. The last half of the book's pages have, about 3/4 of the way down, short, sometimes jagged, edge tears and/or long, light creases near the lower corner. The tears range from 1/2-inch to miniscule. Like the creases, they are only in the outside margin. Let me emphasize that no text throughout the book is affected by these defects. (One of my scans shows one of the torn pages; this is as bad as it gets, and is barely noticeable here except when enlarged.) Finally, the book lacks the scarce dust jacket. For this item, price includes shipping and postal insurance.