James Joyce

The first edition of James Joyce's first fiction, Dubliners.

• James Joyce (Irish).
• London: Grant Richards Ltd, [1914].
• Octavo.
• 278 pages.
• One of 746 bound for Richards (1250 copies printed).
• Original dark red cloth, gilt stamped lettering on the spine and front cover.

The rocky publishing history of Dubliners is well documented: finished in 1905, it was rejected by 15 publishers before Grant Richards accepted it. Richards' printers refused to set some of the type – inaugurating Joyce's lifelong struggle with censorship – and Joyce refused most of Richards' changes. It was then taken up by Maunsel & Roberts of Dublin, who eventually came to a similar conclusion. Maunsel even burned all but one of the copies of the sheets, which Joyce managed to wheedle out of him, and it was given back to Richards, who set the type from the lone Maunsel sheet saved from the flames. Joyce subsequently added "A Little Cloud" and "The Dead" – possibly his most famous single story – to the collection.