NY, Dodd Mead, (1936). The first book by McNickle, a writer of Flathead Indian descent, and a landmark Native American novel, one of the early books to address questions of assimilation and alienation from both the white way of life and traditional tribal culture. It began the process in American Indian literature of looking for value in traditional Native American beliefs even in the face of such alienation. As such, Charles Larson's seminal study of Native American literature (American Indian Fiction, Albuquerque, 1978) links McNickle with N. Scott Momaday -- thirty years McNickle's junior -- as the two writers who predate the later wave of politically aware Native American writers such as James Welch and Leslie Marmon Silko. McNickle was a lifelong activist for Native American rights: in 1934, he joined the staff of John Collier, the reformist Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and later was a co-founder of the Congress of American Indians, among many other accomplishments. The Newberry Library's Center for the History of the American Indian was renamed for McNickle after his death. Trace foxing to the edges of the text block, otherwise a fine copy in a very good, mildly spine-sunned dust jacket with shallow chipping at the crown and the lower edge of the front panel. Although this book dates from the modern era, this is only the second copy we have ever seen or heard of with the dust jacket intact. A keystone book for any collection of Native American literature. [#026348] SOLD

All books are first printings of first editions or first American editions unless otherwise noted.

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