Hardcover with dust jacket, Octavo. 602 pages. In original lime green cloth boards with green titles to the spine and original unclipped dust jacket with Steinbeck's photo on the rear with no blurb. The first printing of the first trade edition, with "bite" on page 281 mistakenly changed from the original word, "bight", during proofreading. Text and covers are tight, green cloth somewhat bleached. Dustjacket with small tears around the edges, front separated along spine with partial loss at head, rear good. Goldstone & Payne A32b. 

In this classic retelling of the story of Cain and Abel, Steinbeck writes of two multi-generational families in California s Salinas Valley.  East of Eden is considered one of Steinbeck's most ambitious works and a classic of modern American literature. Steinbeck claimed, "the novel has everything in it I have been able to learn about my art or craft or profession in all these years. I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this," (Salinas Public Library, 45).