Boston: Little, Brown and Company, (1967). First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. [i-x], [1-2], 3-276 pages.

Savage's stark Western set on a 1920s Montana ranch. It charts the clash between Phil, brilliant and cruel, and his gentler brother George after George marries a widow who provokes Phil’s cruelty while her son provokes his repressed desire. This brilliant novel exposes the corrosive shame of closeted cowboy masculinity.

This is Annie Proulx's own copy of the book, with a letter of provenance from the bookseller who bought it from her in person. Considering Proulx's own brilliant story, 'Brokeback Mountain,' it is not difficult to imagine her being influenced by this work. She and Savage admired each other's writing, and corresponded, and scholars have suggested 'The Power of the Dog' inspired Proulx's portrayal of the homosexual relationship between two rugged ranch hands in 'Brokeback Mountain.' That being said, Proulx does not admit to such influence in the glowing Afterword she wrote for the 2001 reissue of 'The Power of the Dog.'.

Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Bound in orange textured paper over boards with spine titled in black. dark orange endpapers. A few tiny extremity rubs to binding. Interior leaves have an occasion pencil line in margin to highlight a passage and one instance of a correction of a typo (p. 265). These notations are presumably by Proulx. Jacket shows minor extremity wear including a few shallow chips, a couple of short closed edge tears, and a few minor extremity rubs. There is some occasional light foxing to jacket extremities. Jacket spine shows a small patch of green ink believed to be Proulx's library mark as mentioned in the accompanying letter of provenance.

Item #2195

Price: $3,500