STEINBECK, John — Winter of Our Discontent, the

New York: The Viking Press, 1961. Steinbeck's Final Novel - A Dark Meditation on Conscience and Corruption The Winter of Our Discontent - First US Edition STEINBECK, John. The Winter of Our Discontent. New York: The Viking Press, 1961. First US edition. Octavo (8 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches; 210 x 140 mm.). [viii], [1-5], 6-311, [1, blank] pp. Publisher's blue cloth, front cover stamped in blind, spine blocked in black and lettered in silver, top edge stained pale blue. In the original color pictorial dust jacket, price-clipped, with very light chipping to spine extremities. A fine copy in a very good dust jacket. Steinbeck's last novel, The Winter of Our Discontent is a searching and often somber exploration of morality in modern America. Set in a declining New England town, the novel follows Ethan Allen Hawley, a man of integrity increasingly tempted - and ultimately compromised - by the corrosive pressures of ambition, social expectation, and material success. Darker in tone than much of Steinbeck's earlier work, it stands as a late-career reckoning with questions of ethics, identity, and the cost of prosperity. The present example, despite the price-clipping and slight wear, remains a notably fresh and appealing copy of Steinbeck's final major work. Goldstone & Payne A38a. .