Books

First edition, first impression, first issue, presentation copy, inscribed by the author in the month of publication on the half-title, "With the writer's compliments James Joyce Trieste 23 June 1914". This is among the earliest presentation copies of the book that Joyce finished composing in Trieste. The official publication date in London was Monday, 15 June, but Joyce did not receive the first of the 120 copies he had agreed to buy from Grant Richards until Friday of that week. Joyce inscribed only very few copies that first Friday - to Roberto Preziosi, the Italian who had paid excessive attentions to Nora, to Moses Dlugacz, his Zionist friend, and to Bice Randegger, the model for Beatrice in Exiles and the "dark lady" of his Triestine prose-poem Giacomo Joyce. This copy is dated the following Tuesday, 23 June. Joyce's Triestine friend Ettore Schmitz (Italo Svevo) seems to have been sent his copy around the same date, to judge from his letter of thanks, which is dated 26 June. In the years leading up to publication, Joyce had supported himself in Trieste by giving private lessons and by teaching English and business correspondence. The form of words used in the inscription here - "with the writer's compliments" - suggests that Joyce inscribed it for one of his pupils, or perhaps one of their wealthy parents, whom he hoped to impress with evidence of his writerly craft. The first issue of Dubliners comprises 746 sets of sheets bound by Grant Richards and issued in London. The remaining 504 sets of the 1,250 printed were shipped to Huebsch in New York, where they were not issued until much later, sometime between 15 December 1916 and 1 January 1917. READ MORE Octavo. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. Housed in a dark red cloth chemise and quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Spine slightly faded, small white mark to center of spine, front inner hinge starting, light foxing to contents. A very good copy. Slocum & Cahoon 3.

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They form a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle-class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century.