JAMES, HENRY | Two First Editions

The Property of a Gentleman

JAMES, HENRY

Two First Editions

The Spoils Of Poynton. London: William Heinemann 1897. 8vo (4 7/8 x 7 1/2 in.; 125 x 190 mm). Half-title, title-page printed in red and black, publisher's advertisements at end. Original blue cloth covered boards, upper cover with four irises stamped in blind, upper cover and spine gilt lettered; minor rubbing to extremities. First edition. Edel & Laurence A 48a. [With:] The Spoils of Poynton. London: William Heinemann 1897. 8vo. Publisher's advertisements at end. Original blue cloth covered boards, upper cover with nine tulips stamped in blind, upper cover and spine gilt lettered; minor discoloration — The Two Magics. The Turn of The Screw. Covering End. William Heinemann, 1898. 8vo (4 7/8 x 7 1/2 in.; 125 x 190 mm). Half-title, title-page printed in red and black, publisher's advertisements at end. Original blue cloth covered boards, upper cover with four irises stamped in blind, upper cover and spine gilt lettered; minor rubbing to extremities; some foxing to endpapers and fore-edge. First edition, one of 1,500 copies. Edel & Laurence A52. John McA. Borland (ownership signature to front free endpaper; stamp to half-title)

Group lots not subject to return.

Together two fine first editions, including The Turn of the Screw, one of the greatest tales of suspense 

The entire edition of The Spoils of Poynton—including all three binding states, two of which are present here—consisted of 2,000 copies, while The Two Magics was issued in an edition of 1,500. The Turn of the Screw, published in the latter, first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly between 27 January and 16 April 1898. In October 1898 it was published in The Two Magics. Classified as both Gothic fiction and a ghost story, it is regarded as a seminal text of academics who subscribed to New Criticism.