ONE OF 75 COPIES

The Dover Patrol.

Canterbury: Printed for Private Circulation by H.J. Goulden, Ltd, 1922.

Price: $750.00


About the item

First edition, one of 75 copies, this copy is in the earlier state without the half title and title. 14 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. ONE OF 75 COPIES. Original pale blue wrappers, stapled. Edges slightly faded, otherwise about fine. In red calf-backed case. Cagle A56a; Keating 221.

Item #303662

The Dover Patrol provided safe passage to the Continent for British troops in World War One, and protected and regulated Channel traffic during the war. Though "no figure of rhetoric can render justice to the quiet resolution of men making up for the inadequacy of [their] means," Conrad pays them a handsome tribute. This essay, written at the request of Lord Northcliffe, originally appeared in the The Times, July 27, 1921, and was later included in Later Essays.
This is one of the most difficult items in the Conrad canon, nearly sixty copies (eighty percent of the edition) are held in universities. A title-page was added to the second printing to please Conrad.