Farmington. First edition.
First Edition of Darrow's Farmington Darrow, Clarence [1857-1938]. Farmington. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1904. First edition, First Printing (with "Published September 24, 1904" on copyright page). Octavo (7-3/4" x 5-1/2"; 19.7 x 14cm). vi, 277 pp. Publisher's green cloth, arts-and-crafts style multi-color vignette and gilt title to front board, gilt title and black-stamped fillets to spine, top edge gilt, deckle fore and bottom edges. Some rubbing to extremities with some wear to spine ends, bottom corners moderately dog-eared. Title page with large engraved vignette printed in red and black. Previous owner's pencil signature to front free endpaper, interior otherwise clean. A good copy of Darrow's semi-autobiographical work. $125. * Farmington holds a unique and profoundly personal place in the bibliography of the legendary defense attorney Clarence Darrow. Published in 1904 by A.C. McClurg & Co., this semi-autobiographical novel was widely considered by Darrow to be his greatest and most cherished literary achievement. Throughout his life, he expressed deep frustration and sorrow that the public and critics largely ignored Farmington in favor of his fiery legal, political, and sociological essays. The book's commercial and critical failure pained him deeply because he felt it captured the truest expression of his soul, written not for the courtroom or the political podium, but from a place of quiet reflection. Writing through the loosely veiled persona of "John Smith," Darrow looks back at a boyhood spent in a rural, idyll-turned-skeptical environment based heavily on his own formative years in Kinsman, Ohio; despite the nominal setting change to Pennsylvania. Rather than a sentimental exercise in nostalgia, the narrative serves as an essential psychological blueprint for Darrow's entire worldview. Within its pages, he articulates the foundational philosophies that would define his historic legal career: a profound skepticism toward organized religion, a rejection of rigid formal education systems, and a deep-seated resistance to unyielding societal laws. For the legal historian or collector, Farmington is not merely a failed novel; it is an invaluable intellectual map detailing the evolution of America's most famous "Attorney for the Damned" before he ever stepped into his most historic courtro.
Price: $125.00
Book number 87296