LEWIS, Sinclair (1885-1951). The Innocents. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1917.

First edition, in the rare dust jacket, inscribed to his close friend Harry Korner, who was one of his companions on the cross-country trip which became the subject of his 1919 book Free Air. Considered by biographer Mark Shorer as the scarcest of his books—Lewis himself did not have a copy—and even more so in the rare jacket. ABPC records 4 copies total at auction, with the most recent in 2002; the last copy in dust jacket was 1978. Inscribed by Lewis: "To Harry Korner / Personally delivered in Cleveland / Oct 23, 1918 / as a sure preventive of the flu."

Octavo. Original cloth; printed dust-jacket (spine panel a little toned with a little wear at head, short closed tear to front panel); custom box. Provenance: Harry Korner (authorial inscription).