Fine Books & Manuscripts

JOYCE, James (1882–1941). Dubliners. London: Grant Richards, [1914]. 8vo. Half–title (publisher ads verso). Original publisher’s dark red cloth gilt (few tiny pale spots to upper cover, spine sunned with faint vertical crease along panel, some old adhesive ghosting to front free endpaper); lacking dust wrapper as usual. Provenance: John Needles Chester, 1864–1955 (engraved bookplate). FIRST ENGLISH EDITION of a Joyce’s first prose work featuring a collection of fifteen short stories depicting Irish middle class life in and around Dublin at the turn of the 20th century. ONE OF ONLY 746 COPIES bound by the publisher. Initially, 1,250 sets of sheets were printed for this edition but the publisher, without Joyce’s knowledge, sold off 504 of them to Albert and Charles Boni of New York. A new title page was printed, and the sheets were quicky shipped off and bound for New York aboard the S.S. Arabic. The ship was tragically torpedoed in August 1915, destroying all copies expect for one that Albert Boni kept in his personal collection. Slocum and Cahoon A8.