The Devil and Daniel Webster

Title: The Devil and Daniel WebsterAuthor: Benét, Stephen VincentPublication: Weston, Vt.: The Countryman Press, 1937.Description: Stephen Vincent Benét's fantasy short story about a farmer who sells his soul to the devil and calls upon statesman and lawyer Daniel Webster to defend him. Number 583 of 700 copies. Signed by the author and illustrator. First Countryman Press edition. Designed by Vrest Orton. Title page in red and black within a decorative border. Five full-page black-and-white illustrations. Bound in full red cloth over boards, with the title stamped in gilt on a black oval centerpiece, in glassine wrapper and red paper-covered slipcase with title label. 8.75 x 5.75 inches; 61, [3] pages (last leaf blank). A rather sunned spine, light foxing on a few leaves, losses to wrapper, and sunned and worn slipcase. Very Good in Fair wrapper and slipcase. Vrest Orton founded the Countryman Press in 1935, setting up shop in a shed attached to the back of his house in Weston, Vermont. He operated it through the 1930s, only pausing to take a job in the Pentagon during World War II. Upon returning to Weston after the war, he founded the Vermont Country Store with his wife Mildred, printing the early issues of the store catalog in his print shop. This edition of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" is the first time the story appeared as a separate publication.