The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner — First Edition Identification and Collecting Guide

Faulkner’s Impossible Masterpiece

William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury — published by Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith on October 7, 1929 — is among the most formally ambitious novels in English and the book that established Faulkner as a major artist. Written in four sections with radically different narrative techniques (including the stream-of-consciousness of an intellectually disabled man and the time-fractured obsessions of a suicidal Harvard student), the novel broke new ground in representing consciousness while telling the story of the Compson family’s decline in fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. For collectors, it is both a genuine rarity — 1,789 copies is a remarkably small first printing for what became one of the most important American novels — and the centerpiece of any serious Faulkner collection or American modernist library.

First Edition Identification

Publisher and Date

Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith (usually rendered “Cape and Smith”), New York, 1929

Publisher context: Cape and Smith was a short-lived partnership between the British publisher Jonathan Cape and the American Harrison Smith. The firm published only from 1929 to 1931, when the partnership dissolved. Smith then formed Harrison Smith, Inc., and later Smith and Haas. This brief publisher existence means Cape and Smith imprints are uncommon by definition.

Physical Description

• Binding: Black and white patterned paper over boards, with white cloth spine
• Spine: Title in black; author name; publisher
• Size: 8vo (approximately 7.75 × 5.25 inches)
• Pages: 401 pages
• Endpapers: White

Key Identification Points

Issue Points

The first edition is not known to have significant issue points within the printing — all 1,789 copies are identical in text and binding. The dust jacket is the primary variable:

Dust jacket:

• Designed in an art deco style
• Front panel: Title and author with decorative elements
• Spine: Title, author, Cape and Smith
• Rear panel: Other Cape and Smith titles
• Front flap: $3.00 price; descriptive text
• Survival: Jacket survival is poor — perhaps 100–200 copies retain their original jackets

The Colored-Ink Dream

Faulkner originally wanted the Benjy section printed in multiple colors of ink to indicate different time periods (past memories in one color, present action in another). The expense was prohibitive in 1929. This wish was finally realized in 2012 when the Folio Society published an edition with colored text following Faulkner’s scheme. The history of this unrealized intention adds to the novel’s legend.

Print Run and Rarity

First printing: 1,789 copies

This is one of the smallest first printings of any canonically important American novel. By comparison:

• The Great Gatsby (1925): ~20,000 copies
• The Sun Also Rises (1926): ~5,000 copies
• As I Lay Dying (1930): 2,522 copies (also small)
• Invisible Man (1952): ~5,000–7,500 copies

The small run reflects Faulkner’s commercial reality in 1929: he had published two novels (Soldiers’ Pay, 1926, and Mosquitoes, 1927) with Boni & Liveright, neither commercially successful. Cape and Smith took a chance on a formally experimental novel by a barely known Mississippi writer — and printed accordingly.

The timing disaster: Published October 7, 1929, just twenty-two days before the Wall Street Crash (October 29). The economic collapse that followed made book-buying a low priority. Many copies went unsold initially; reviews were respectful but confused. The novel’s reputation grew slowly through the 1930s.

Survival

• Total first printing: 1,789 copies
• Estimated surviving copies (any condition): 800–1,200
• Copies with jacket: Perhaps 100–200
• Fine/Fine copies: Extremely rare — perhaps 20–40

Condition Considerations

Book

• Patterned paper boards: The distinctive binding is beautiful but fragile — paper wears, darkens, and chips at edges and corners
• White cloth spine: Shows soiling, yellowing, and spotting over 95+ years
• Hinges: The binding construction is adequate but not robust; hinge cracking is common
• Text block: Paper quality is acceptable for 1929; browning at edges but generally stable
• Size: The book is not unusually large or small, so stress on binding is moderate

Jacket

• Extremely rare: Perhaps 100–200 copies retain original jackets
• Condition of surviving jackets: Most show significant wear — chipping, fading, tears, tape repairs
• The jacket makes the copy: A Fine/Fine Sound and the Fury (book and jacket both exceptional) is a legitimate five-figure rarity

Condition and Value

Signed Copies

Rarity

Faulkner (1897–1962) was not a prolific signer. He was reclusive by nature, spent most of his life in Oxford, Mississippi (far from the literary circuits of New York), drank heavily, and was not inclined to literary socializing. He did, however, participate in some signing events (particularly after the Nobel Prize in 1949 brought fame), gave inscribed copies to friends and associates, and signed books during his time as Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia (1957–1962).

Signed first editions of The Sound and the Fury: Extremely rare. Perhaps 50–100 signed copies exist. In 1929, Faulkner was unknown and there was no reason for organized signings. Signed copies tend to be presentation copies to friends, fellow writers, or later-acquired signatures on copies Faulkner encountered at events.

Signed limited editions: Faulkner participated in several signed limited editions later in his career, including the Limited Editions Club The Sound and the Fury (1946), which included 1,500 copies signed by Faulkner. These are available at $2,000–$5,000.

The Nobel Prize Effect (1949)

Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 (announced 1950). The effect on his book market was transformative:

• Pre-Nobel: Faulkner was respected but not widely read; many titles out of print; first editions available at modest prices
• Nobel announcement: Immediate spike in demand; publishers rushed reprints
• Malcolm Cowley’s role: Cowley’s The Portable Faulkner (1946, Viking) had already begun Faulkner’s rehabilitation; the Nobel completed it
• Long-term: Prices have appreciated continuously since 1950; the trajectory has been among the strongest in American literature

The Nobel Speech

Faulkner’s Nobel acceptance speech (“I decline to accept the end of man… I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail”) is among the most quoted in Nobel history. A signed copy of the speech or its various printed forms is a significant Faulkner collectible.

Yoknapatawpha as Collecting Concept

The Sound and the Fury is the fourth novel set in Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County. The interconnected world — characters recur, families evolve, events echo across novels — creates a natural collecting framework:

The Yoknapatawpha Novels (in internal chronology)

Publisher Progression

Faulkner’s publisher history maps his commercial fortunes:

1. Boni & Liveright (1926–1927): Two novels; then rejected Flags in the Dust
2. Harcourt Brace (1929): Published abridged Sartoris
3. Cape and Smith (1929–1931): Three novels; partnership dissolved
4. Smith and Haas (1932–1936): Two novels; firm absorbed
5. Random House (1936–1962): Remainder of career; stable relationship

This multi-publisher early career means collecting Faulkner requires tracking five different identification systems for the first seven novels.

The Compson Appendix

In 1946, Faulkner wrote the “Compson Appendix” for Malcolm Cowley’s Portable Faulkner — a chronological family history of the Compsons from 1699 to 1945. This appendix was later incorporated into some editions of The Sound and the Fury. For collectors:

• The Portable Faulkner (1946, Viking) with the first appearance of the Appendix is a significant Faulkner collectible ($500–$1,500 F/F)
• Editions of The Sound and the Fury with the Appendix are post-1946 and not the true first edition

Companion Contexts

American Modernism

The Sound and the Fury in context with its modernist contemporaries:

• James Joyce, Ulysses (1922) — the predecessor; Faulkner acknowledged the influence
• Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) — parallel stream-of-consciousness
• Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929) — contrasting minimalist modernism
• F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925), Tender Is the Night (1934)

Southern Literature

The Southern Gothic tradition that Faulkner dominates:

• Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952), A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955)
• Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
• Eudora Welty, Delta Wedding (1946)
• Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (1985) — the successor

Market History

• 1930s–1940s: First editions available for $5–$20 (out of print, forgotten)
• 1946: Cowley’s Portable Faulkner begins rehabilitation; $25–$100
• 1949–1950: Nobel Prize; immediate spike to $200–$500
• 1960s: $500–$2,000; Faulkner’s death (1962) created permanent memorial demand
• 1970s–1980s: $2,000–$10,000; steady academic-driven appreciation
• 1990s: $10,000–$25,000
• 2000s–2010s: $25,000–$75,000
• 2020s: $75,000–$150,000 for Fine/Fine

90-year trajectory: From $3.00 cover price to $100,000+ — approximately doubling every 12–15 years over the long term. This is among the strongest appreciation curves in American book collecting, reflecting Faulkner’s unassailable position in the American literary canon.