Books

Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1963. First American Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Very Good+ in a Very Good+ dust jacket. Owner name on FEP. ; Personalized by author on title page. ; Signed by Author.

The Collector is the debut novel of English author John Fowles. It was first published in 1963 by Jonathan Cape and is about a lonely young man, Frederick Clegg, who works as a clerk in a city hall and collects butterflies in his spare time. Clegg is infatuated with Miranda Grey, a middle-class art student at the Slade School of Art. Unable to make any contact with her but obsessed with his unrelenting desire, Clegg decides to add her to his 'collections' by kidnapping her and holding her captive in the cellar of his rural farmhouse. What follows is a chilling exploration of power, art, freedom, and the consequences of human actions.

The first edition of 'The Collector' published by Jonathan Cape in 1963 would have the original dust jacket design and no mention of later printings on the copyright page.