This is my favorite novel because the Joad family's struggle to find a better life out West is so universally appealing. It was difficult to make this book my first release, however, because it has sentimental appeal. This particular copy was printed in 1940, the year after it was first published. The book had gone through thirteen editions already. I bought the book, probably for 50 cents, at a sale of the County Library of Russell, Kansas in 1976, and have been haunted by a single handwritten word inside the cover--"Discard." Until now, when I made the decision to release this book, I could not understand how a librarian could make the decision to discard it. Over 60 years after it was printed and over 25 years since it has been sitting on my bookshelf, I am releasing The Grapes of Wrath.

Release planned for Tuesday, July 23, 2002 at PDX Portland airport in Portland, Oregon USA.

We are flying out of PDX to Minneapolis, so I left the book on a seat in the terminal.