Inscription within "Spirit Lake" by MacKinlay Kantor

This inscription is found on the first page of the hardcover edition of MacKinlay Kantor's 1961 novel Spirit Lake. If it's a bit hard for you to read I can tell you that it states:

10/10
TO JAY —
OUR FAVORITE LANDLORD EVER AND THE ONLY PERSON I KNOW WHO READS AS MUCH AS I DO. THANKS FOR EVERY THING!
DAVE AND MARLENE

I'm not sure if the 10/10 refers to this being given as a gift on October 10th or the book receiving a 10/10 rating.

I knew about Kantor's Andersonville, but I wasn't aware of this doorstop of a novel before I came across it recently. It centers around 1857's Spirit Lake Massacre, but is apparently about much more than that. The Kirkus review notes: "To all of this MacKinlay Kantor has brought the breath of life. He has recreated for the reader (who has the fortitude to stay with the whole of his 900 and 57 pages) the panorama of personalities, individuals and families from their known — and suspected sources — through the pattern of their journeyings until they put down roots in the far frontiers, strengthened by their dreams, their aspirations, their faith." The final two words of that review are "immensely rewarding."

It seems this novel never got the acclaim of Andersonville, though it might be worthy. In 2014, Goodreads reviewer Janice (JG) wrote the following:

"This historical novel is a literary feast. It is a true readers' read. ... Consequently, I am flummoxed by the disinterest and neglect of this novel. There aren't even ten reviews between both Goodreads and Amazon, and some of those who did read all 958 pages said it bored them. For a book that was banned in Texas upon publication¹, it seems to have been shockingly underrated and ignored. ... Kantor's ability to engage the reader intimately on every subject from coyotes to four-year-old children to snow to garbage is uncanny — and an indication of an enormous writing talent. Somehow he manages to slip inside every living thing he touches upon, bringing us with him until we are replete, filled up with the spirit and bone and muscle and desires of each. Corn-Sucker, a Hidatsa woman who weaves in and out throughout the novel, is an unforgettable character, and one of my favorite of all fictional females."

Footnote
1. From the January 17, 1963, edition of The Marshall (Texas) News Messenger:

The book "Spirit Lake," by MacKinlay Kantor, which has been ordered removed from the library of Baytown High School by the board of trustees, is not in the Marshall High School Library, according to Von Rhea Beane, superintendent of schools in Marshall.

The novel is based upon an especially horrible massacre of white settlers around Spirit Lake, Iowa in 1857 by a band of renegade Indians.

The Baytown trustees ordered the book removed from the library at the high school because, they said, the book contained "objectionable language." Baytown school officials were ordered to investigate other Kantor novels.

Kantor in a telephone conversation with the Houston Chronicle, said, "I've written 35 books which have been published all over the world and translated into many languages. My work doesn't need defending. I'll say this though, I didn't write it for immature girls or immature adults, but for mature readers."