BAUMAN RARE BOOKS 22 Rare first edition of Joyce’s first prose work, his great collection of short stories. One of only 1250 copies printed (499 of which were sunk en route to America). Dubliners was first accepted by publisher Grant Richards in February 1906, but the printer objected to certain passages and refused to do the job. In 1910 Maunsel and Co. agreed to publish it; again certain passages were found objectionable. The firm of John Falconer printed 1000 copies but then, with the exception of the page proofs, promptly burned the entire edition. In 1913 Joyce again offered the book to Elkin Mathews who again turned it down. Finally Grant Richards decided to accept the book a second time, with no royalties on the first 500 copies and Joyce agreeing to buy 120 copies himself. Only 1250 sets of sheets were printed; 504 were sold to New York publisher B.W. Huebsch for the first American edition. “It has also been reported that in 1915 Grant Richards sold without Joyce’s knowledge 500 sets of [the original 1250] Dubliners sheets to Albert and Charles Boni of New York… 499 copies were shipped to New York on the S.S. Arabic which was torpedoed.... All copies were lost except one which Albert Boni kept” (Slocum & Cahoon A8). Thus, of the original 1250 sets of sheets, 504 are known to have been sold for the American edition and 499 are believed lost. Text block split but firmly attached to backstrip, a few tiny spots to edges of text block, cloth fresh. An extraordinary copy. “His Soul Swooned Slowly As He Heard The Snow Falling Faintly Through The Universe And Faintly Falling, Like The Descent Of Their Last End, Upon All The Living And The Dead” 27JOYCE, James. Dubliners. London, 1914. Octavo, original dark red cloth, custom cloth clamshell box. $32,000
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDg3OTM=