Joyce, James | First published edition of Dubliners in the very rare dust-jacket

Joyce, James

Dubliners. London: Grant Richards, (1914)

8vo (193 x 124 mm). Half-title; browned (a ticket on the rear pastedown states "Deacidified 1989"). Publisher's maroon cloth, front cover and spine gilt-lettered; edges with some very light soiling, some almost imperceptible restoration to the joints. Publisher's green dust-jacket printed in black; some very fine restoration, including marginal repair and rejoining at broken flap- and spine-creases. Green morocco folding-box.

First published edition, one of approximately 746 copies bound in the publisher's maroon cloth, with the very rare dust-jacket. The publishing history of Dubliners is convoluted, but well-known. Grant Richards originally accepted the collection of short stories for publication in his first list of 1906. After skirmishes with printers over objectionable passages, the publisher abandoned the book. It was later picked up by Maunsel, who printed an edition of 1000 copies in 1910. After Joyce refused Maunsel's manager's request to make emendations to the text, the edition was destroyed. Joyce subsequently added two important stories—"A Little Cloud" and "The Dead"—to the collection. In 1914, the author returned to Richards, who published the book in June of that year. 

Only six copies in jacket have appeared at auction in the past forty-five years. Despite the restorations noted, this is an attractive, near-fine copy.

REFERENCE

Slocum & Cahoon A8