8vo. Half-title; title printed in brown and black. Original cloth stamped in orange and green, top edge stained orange; in unclipped dust jacket (a few small neat repairs along top edge verso, some minor soiling along flap folds). Provenance: John B. Sanford (blindstamp on flyleaf). 

FIRST EDITION of Caldwell's novel which was influenced, in part, by textile mill strikes in Gastonia, North Carolina, focusing on the plight of workers who are without Union protection. The novel's sexual themes lead the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice to ask a New York court to censor it, but the court ruled in Caldwell's favor. It was Caldwell's most popular novel, and was adapted to film in 1958, starting Robert Ryan.