Conrad, Almayer's Folly, 1895, signed

From the Library of Christian Heuer

CONRAD, JOSEPH

Almayer's Folly. A Story of an Eastern River. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1895

8vo, FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE OF THE AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK, SIGNED BY CONRAD WITH A NOTE ABOUT THE WORK'S CONCEPTION ("my very first attempt at | writing, as related in | A Persona[l] Record. | J.C.") on front free endpaper, "With the Publisher's Compliments" stamp on title-page, title-page in red and black, original dark green vertically ribbed cloth lettered in gilt on spine, collector's chemise and green morocco-backed slipcase, top edge gilt, crease to front free endpaper, minor abrasion to front fixed endpaper, extremities very slightly bumped

"Books may be written in all sorts of places... I indulge in the pleasant fancy that the shade of old Flaubert... might have hovered with amused interest over the decks of a 2,000-ton steamer called the Adowa, on board of which, gripped by the inclement winter alongside a quay in Rouen, the tenth chapter of Almayer's Folly was begun..." (A Personal Record, 1919, p.23). This copy has the first state of page 110 in which type is missing in the last two lines.

LITERATURE:

Wise 1; Cagle A1a(1)

PROVENANCE:

Stanley J. Seeger, book-label, the sale of his Joseph Conrad Collection, Part I, Sotheby's, 10 July 2013, lot 5

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