First edition, first impression, of Joyce's first book.
The publishing history of Chamber Music is well-documented but has some lacunae. The book was published on 10 May 1907 in an edition of 509 copies, but Mathews did not bind all copies at once, resulting in three variants, distinguished by slightly different cloth and endpapers. There have been a number of different guesses as to how many copies Mathews bound in each variant, but it is likely that copies in the second and third variants were bound simultaneously in or about 1911, after the first 205 copies in the first binding had sold.
The present copy is in Slocum and Cahoon's third variant binding, with the cloth in a slightly darker shade of green than the first, and with the pages trimmed slightly shorter, resulting in some poems in the third gathering appearing poorly centred; the third variant has thin transparent wove endpapers, the second has thick wove endpapers.
Small octavo. Original light green cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt.
Illustrated title page.
Spine slightly toned, extremities rubbed and a little frayed at spine ends, endpapers browned and a little marked, front hinge partly cracked but firm, contents clean: a very good copy.
Slocum & Cahoon A3.