Presentation Copy, Inscribed

An Outcast of the Islands.

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896.

Price: $7,500.00


About the item

First edition, with "this" for "their" on p. 26, l. 31; "Absolution" for "ablution" p. 110, l. 12; "9" missing on p. 129; and "hate" for "fate" on p. 356, l. 26. Title-page in red and black. [ii, ads], [vi], 391, [1] pp. 1 vols. 8vo (200 x 135 mm). Presentation Copy, Inscribed. Publisher's green cloth, gilt spine title, gilt top edge. Minor browning to endleaves, else very fine. Cagle A2(2) binding a; Ehrsam, p. 293; Keating 4; Smith 2; Wise, Conrad 2.

Item #303354

Presentation copy of the first edition, inscribed "From the author" on the front flyleaf (Galsworthy’s copy, also a presentation, bore a similar inscription, Seeger part I, lot 9, Sotheby’s, 10 July 2013). With a pencil note on the front pastedown that this copy was "Inscribed by the author to F.C. Redmayne.

"The publication of Conrad's second book was plagued with problems. A fire destroyed the original electrotype plates late in 1895 and the book was hastily reset and proofed, leaving in an inordinate number of typos and dropped letters. The number of copies printed is unknown, but presentation copies as fine as this are rarely encountered.