Henry Beston

The Outermost House [Signed]

Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1928.

Octavo. xv, 222 pp. [3], Publisher's original navy blue cloth with gilt-stamped lettering to upper cover and spine. Stated "First Edition" on the copyright page. Warmly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "For Louise Seaman with the homage and admiration of her old friend The Outermost Householder. Henry", accompanied by the recipient's pencil signature ("Louise S. Bechtel") on the front pastedown.

Spine toned and darkened, with gilt lettering dimmed. Moderate shelfwear, fraying, and chipping at spine tips and corners. Fore-edge and bottom edge untrimmed; top edge trimmed and toned. Noticeable foxing and ghosting/offsetting to the photographic frontispiece and title page; interior text block otherwise clean, tight, and securely bound.

A seminal masterpiece of American nature writing, The Outermost House chronicles Henry Beston’s transformative year spent in solitude in a 20x16 foot cottage among the shifting dunes of Eastham on Cape Cod's Great Beach. Beston's lyrical prose, coupled with striking photographic plates by William A. Bradford and others, captured the raw rhythms of the Atlantic and famously inspired the establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

This presentation copy is inscribed to Louise Seaman Bechtel, the pioneering founder of Macmillan’s Children’s Book Department (the first of its kind in American publishing) and a lifelong friend and colleague of Beston and his wife, Newbery Medalist Elizabeth Coatsworth. First editions of this environmental classic are scarce, with significant association copies signed with Beston's evocative nom de plume, "The Outermost Householder," representing premier cornerstones of Cape Cod and ecological literature. 

. Very Good. Item #1009

Price: $9,250.00