Vladimir Nabokov | Lolita, 1955, first edition

Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita. Paris: The Olympia Press, 1955

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE with price of 900 francs, 8vo, 2 vols, publisher's green printed wrappers, bespoke grey morocco and marbled clamshell box, some wear to head and foot of spines, extremities rubbed, repaired chip to upper cover of vol 1, closed tear to rear cover of volume 2

The FIRST EDITION of this acclaimed and infamous novel, which was published in France following its rejection by Viking, Simon & Schuster, New Directions, Farrar, Straus and Doubleday. Olympia Press, headed by Maurice Girodias, agreed to publish the book with an initial print run of 5,000 copies. It divided opinion, with Grahame Greene calling it one of the three best books of 1955, while John Gordon of the Sunday Express called it "the filthiest book I have ever read." Shortly after, British Customs officers were instructed to sieze all copies in the United Kingdom, and it was banned in France for two years. It was eventually published in the UK in 1959 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.