The Voice at the Back Door (Inscribed first edition)
- SIGNED
- New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc, 1956
New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc, 1956. First edition. Near Fine/Very Good +. Inscribed by Elizabeth Spencer on the title-page: "For Walter and Jane, all good wishes and hopes, Elizabeth Spencer, Chattanooga, 2 Apr '93." With a bookplate signed by Spencer laid in. Publisher's black-and-blue boards. Toning to endpapers and first and last couple leaves. Unclipped dust jacket a bit wrinkled around folds, with small chips to corners and head and tail of spine. A Near Fine copy in Very Good+ dust jacket.
"In The Voice at the Back Door, Mississippi native Elizabeth Spencer gives form to the many voices that shaped her view of race relations while growing up, and at the same time discovers her own voice – one of hope. Employing her extraordinary literary powers – finely honed narrative techniques, insight into a rich, diverse cast of characters, and an unerring ear for dialect – Spencer makes palpable the psychological milieu of a small southern town hobbled by tradition but lurching toward the dawn of the civil rights movement...The Voice at the Back Door is Spencer’s most highly praised novel yet" (preface to the 1994 edition).
Spencer's novel was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, though the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was ultimately not awarded in 1957. The jury had recommended The Voice at the Back Door, but the Pulitzer board, which has sole discretion for awarding the prize, controversially made no award. Near Fine in Very Good + dust jacket.
"In The Voice at the Back Door, Mississippi native Elizabeth Spencer gives form to the many voices that shaped her view of race relations while growing up, and at the same time discovers her own voice – one of hope. Employing her extraordinary literary powers – finely honed narrative techniques, insight into a rich, diverse cast of characters, and an unerring ear for dialect – Spencer makes palpable the psychological milieu of a small southern town hobbled by tradition but lurching toward the dawn of the civil rights movement...The Voice at the Back Door is Spencer’s most highly praised novel yet" (preface to the 1994 edition).
Spencer's novel was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, though the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was ultimately not awarded in 1957. The jury had recommended The Voice at the Back Door, but the Pulitzer board, which has sole discretion for awarding the prize, controversially made no award. Near Fine in Very Good + dust jacket.