Joyce, James | “The light music of whisky falling into glasses made an agreeable interlude.”

Property from the Robert S Brown Collection

Joyce, James

Dubliners. London: Grant Richards Ltd, 1914

8vo. Half-title, 18 lines of publisher's advertisements facing the title-page. Publisher's maroon cloth, front cover and spine gilt-lettered; lacking dust jacket (as usual), front hinge starting, spine lightly sunned, extremities rubbed and corners bumped, fairly unobtrusive dampsoiling to covers. 

First published edition, one of approximately 746 copies bound in the publisher's maroon cloth. The publishing history of Dubliners is convoluted, but well-known. Grant Richards originally accepted the collection of short stories for publication in his first list of 1906. After skirmishes with printers over objectionable passages, the publisher abandoned the book. It was later picked up by Maunsel, who printed an edition of 1,000 copies in 1910. After Joyce refused Maunsel's manager's request to make emendations to the text, the edition was destroyed. Joyce subsequently added two important stories—"A Little Cloud" and "The Dead"—to the collection. In 1914, the author returned to Richards, who published the book in June of that year.

REFERENCE:

Slocum and Cahoon A8

PROVENANCE:

Walter & Dorothy Donnelly (Swann Galleries, 16 October 1997, lot 123)