THE INHERITORS. An Extravagant Story
by Conrad, Joseph and Hueffer, Ford M.
1901. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1901. Original tan cloth pictorially decorated in black, orange and gilt. First Edition of the first collaboration between Conrad and Hueffer -- a tale that combines science fiction with political satire, somewhat in the same vein as had recently been popularized by H. G. Wells. This is regarded as Conrad's only science fiction tale -- though the work is largely Hueffer's. The "I" narrator is Etchingham Granger, a writer of impeccable... Read More
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NOSTROMO. A Tale of the Seaboard
by Conrad, Joseph
1904. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1904. Original green cloth decorated in orange and black. First American Edition of Conrad's well-known novel involving a South American silver mine, and the corruption and dishonesty fostered by its riches. Conrad was extending his "Lord Jim" theme: that the man who slowly grows rich can be a victim of the silver, not its conqueror; that wealth is not something gained but a trap for those who relinquish, however momentarily,... Read More
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TYPHOON and Other Stories
by Conrad, Joseph
1903. London: William Heinemann, 1903. 2 pp preliminary ads plus 32 pp undated ads. Original grey cloth with life preserver in gilt. First Edition, which consisted of 1500 copies for the domestic market plus 1500 for the colonial market (same binding, different preliminaries). In addition to the title tale, the "other stories" are "Amy Foster," "Falk" and "To-morrow." "Typhoon" had been published in New York in 1902, prior to Conrad's final revisions that are reflected in the text... Read More
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ROMANCE. A Novel
by Conrad, Joseph and Hueffer, F.M.
1904. Illustrated by Charles R. Macauley. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904. 8 pp undated ads. Original blue cloth decorated in grey. First American (and first illustrated) Edition, first impression, first state (i.e. with copyright date 1904) -- of the second collaboration between Conrad and Hueffer (after THE INHERITORS). As Cagle and (much more recently) Supino have explained, this is a curious example of a later copyright date having precedence over an earlier copyright date. The original... Read More
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SOME REMINISCENCES
by Conrad, Joseph
1912. London: Eveleigh Nash, 1912. 2 pp undated ads. Original dark blue cloth. First Edition of this autobiographical work, which initially appeared serially in Ford Madox Ford's newly-founded "English Review." What is remarkable about Conrad's reminiscences is how clearly he employed fictional techniques worked out with Ford,... wherein the narrative intensity increases as the story develops. To achieve that, Conrad used a constantly interrupted narrative as a way of unsettling conventional sequences and, thereby, established anticipation of the... Read More
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NOSTROMO. A Tale of the Seaboard
by Conrad, Joseph
1904. London and New York: Harper & Brothers, 1904. Original dark blue cloth decorated in light blue. First Edition of Conrad's great novel involving a South American silver mine, and the corruption and dishonesty fostered by its riches. Conrad was extending his "Lord Jim" theme: that the man who slowly grows rich can be a victim of the silver, not its conqueror; that wealth is not something gained but a trap for those who relinquish, however momentarily, their... Read More
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THE INHERITORS. An Extravagant Story
by Conrad, Joseph and Hueffer, Ford M.
1901. ["Early Copy for Review"] London: William Heinemann, 1901. 32 pp undated ads. Original yellow cloth decorated in black. First English Edition, first issue, first binding state. The UK edition was issued a month after the American one, and consisted of 1,500 copies in two issues and three bindings. This was Conrad's only science fiction title, involving people from The Fourth Dimension -- though the work is largely Hueffer's. This copy is first issue, withOUT the dedication leaf... Read More
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THE SECRET AGENT. A Simple Tale
by Conrad, Joseph
1907. London: Methuen & Co., (1907). 40 pp ads dated Sept 1907. Original deep red cloth with gilt-decorated spine. First Edition of this tale of espionage sited in Russia. The idea for the story came from an actual 1890s revolutionary attempt to blow up the Observatory at Greenwich. Conrad initially planned this to be a short story (titled "Verloc"); however, as he "got into" it, he lengthened it into a full-blown novel. He then strove to make it... Read More
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LAST ESSAYS
by Conrad, Joseph
1926. With an Introduction by Richard Curle. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1926. Original dark blue cloth, with dust jacket. First American Edition of this posthumous collection of twenty essays, most of which had previously appeared in England in limited pamphlet form. In our experience the American edition of LAST ESSAYS is considerably scarcer than the English one. This is a fine copy; the dust jacket, which bears a portrait of Conrad (and the verso of... Read More
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THE RESCUE. A Romance of the Shallows
by Conrad, Joseph
1920. London & Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1920. Original green cloth stamped in gilt, with dust jacket. First English Trade Edition (issued after the American edition and also after a 40-copy private issue of the English galley proofs). Begun in 1896, and in effect completing the trilogy begun with ALMAYER'S FOLLY and AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS, "THE RESCUE was Conrad's albatross, the book which hung about his neck from the beginning of his writing career almost... Read More
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THE NIGGER OF THE "NARCISSUS". A Tale of the Sea
by Conrad, Joseph
1898. London: William Heinemann, 1898. 4 pp undated ads plus 16 pp ads dated Autumn 1897. Original dark grey cloth with life preserver in gilt. First English Edition of Conrad's third novel (the slightly earlier American edition was titled THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA); 1,519 copies were printed, and the actual date of publication was in late 1897. This tale was the novel which he saw as a turning point in his imagination and in his career... [It]... Read More
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ALMAYER'S FOLLY. A Story of an Eastern River
by Conrad, Joseph
1895. [the leaves still unopened] London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1895. Original dark green cloth. First Edition of Joseph Conrad's first book. "In the absence of publisher's records, the number of copies printed has been estimated to be between 600 and 3000, with approximately 1100 being the most likely number" [Supino]. Conrad, after meeting the real "Olmeijer" in East Borneo in 1887, gradually produced the manuscript of this book over the six years 1889-1895. He submitted it to Unwin... Read More
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TALES OF UNREST
by Conrad, Joseph
1898. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1898. 14 pp undated ads. Original dark green cloth. First English Edition of Conrad's fourth book -- his first collection of short stories (including "An Outpost of Progress," a Congo tale anticipating his later "Heart of Darkness"). The American edition by Scribner's is believed to have come out about ten days earlier. For this U.K. edition Cagle estimates a printing of about 1,250 copies, while Wise and Smith estimate 3,000 (but that figure... Read More
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TALES OF HEARSAY
by Conrad, Joseph
1925. With a Preface by R. B. Cunninghame Graham. London: T. Fisher Unwin, (1925). Original dark green cloth, with dust jacket. First (English) Edition, published on the same day as the American. This posthumous collection of four tales, published the year after Conrad died, includes "The Tale," considered to be one of his best short stories. The others are "The Warrior's Soul," "Prince Roman" and (one of his earliest, written around 1884) "The Black Mate." The volume is... Read More
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THE DOVER PATROL. A Tribute
by Conrad, Joseph
1922. Canterbury: Printed for private circulation by H.J. Goulden, 1922. Original pale turquoise printed wrappers. First Edition, second and usual printing. This was Conrad's tribute to the Dover Patrol, which during World War I had provided safe passage to the Continent for British troops, and generally protected Channel traffic. As with the companion volume issued by Goulden, JOHN GALSWORTHY, there were two distinct printings of this piece. The first printing, which is believed to have consisted of only... Read More
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VICTORY. An Island Tale
by Conrad, Joseph
1915. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1915. Original blue limp leather decorated in gilt. First Edition, second printing, issued about 30 days after the first. (The first printing was in navy blue cloth, and this much-scarcer second, priced a bit higher, was in this "Deep Sea" format of blue limp leather.) This is a good-to-very good copy (some wear, especially at the edges of the spine). Supino A19.2.0 (this copy); Cagle A19a(2) ("no copy located"). Provenance:... Read More
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TALES OF HEARSAY
by Conrad, Joseph
1925. With a Preface by R.B. Cunninghame Graham. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1925. Original blue cloth, with dust jacket. First Edition (American -- published on 23 January 1925, the same day as the English edition). This posthumous collection of four tales, published the year after Conrad died, includes "The Tale," considered to be one of his best short stories. The others are "The Warrior's Soul," "Prince Roman" and (one of his earliest, written around 1884)... Read More
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CHANCE. A Tale in Two Parts
by Conrad, Joseph
1913. Toronto: Bell & Cockburn, n.d. [1913]. 31 pp Methuen ads dated July 1913. Original green cloth with spine decorated in gilt. First Edition, first printing, Canadian issue -- which consisted of just 315 copies issued by early November 1913. CHANCE's first edition has a complex history. In early September 1913, Methuen had 3021 copies printed, 1956 of which were supplied with domestic preliminary leaves dated 1913; however, only 51 of these copies were actually bound up and... Read More
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THE SHADOW LINE. A Confession
by Conrad, Joseph
1917. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1917. Original blue cloth decorated in gilt, with dust jacket. First American Edition, published about a month after Dent's London edition, of one of Conrad's most autobiographical tales. To quote from the dust jacket, The "shadow line" is that dim boundary that divides youth from maturity. How a young first mate, who unexpectedly finds himself in command of a sailing vessel, leaves his carefree youth behind forever in the agonizing... Read More
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WITHIN THE TIDES. Tales
by Conrad, Joseph
1915. London & Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1915. Original olive green cloth, with dust jacket. First Edition of this group of four maritime tales -- "The Planter of Malata," "The Partner," "The Inn of the Two Witches" and "Because of the Dollars." None of these has withstood the test of time, though the last one became better known after Conrad dramatized it, as "Laughing Anne." This copy is bound in the usual vertically-ribbed cloth (a few are... Read More
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TYPHOON and Other Stories
by Conrad, Joseph
1903. London: William Heinemann, 1903. 2 pp preliminary ads. Original grey cloth with life preserver in gilt. First Edition, which consisted of 1500 copies for the domestic market plus 1500 for the colonial market (same binding, different preliminaries). In addition to the title tale, the "other stories" are "Amy Foster," "Falk" and "To-morrow." "Typhoon" had been published in New York in 1902, prior to Conrad's final revisions that are reflected in the text of the English edition; the... Read More
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA. A Tale of the Forecastle
by Conrad, Joseph
1898. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1898. Original pictorial light blue-grey mottled cloth. First Edition, second issue -- with the date 1898 (rather than 1897) on the front of the title leaf. (Note: ALL copies without a date on the front of the title leaf are merely reprints.) In late 1897, Dodd Mead had a first edition of 1000 copies printed; because the book was scheduled for publication late in the fall season, the printers were instructed... Read More
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![LORD JIM. A Tale. [largely unopened]](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/479/209/1768209479.0.l.jpg)
LORD JIM. A Tale. [largely unopened]
by Conrad, Joseph
1900. [a FINE, mostly-unopened copy] Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1900. Original light green linen decorated in black. First Edition, first and only issue, of Conrad's fifth (and most would say his greatest) book, the psychological study of a mariner trying to recover his lost honor. Conrad planned to write only a short story when he began LORD JIM, with an eye toward forming a volume consisting of it, "Youth" and "Heart of Darkness"; however, once... Read More
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AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS
by Conrad, Joseph
1896. [Shakespeare & Co. copy] London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. 1 page preliminary undated ads. Original dark green cloth. First Edition of Conrad's second book, preceded only by (and containing many of the same characters as) ALMAYER'S FOLLY. After Edward Garnett (then a reader at Unwin's) had "discovered" Conrad and had published his first book, he worked very closely with Conrad on this one -- so much so that some biographers have suggested that Garnett's name should have... Read More
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THE SECRET AGENT. A Simple Tale
by Conrad, Joseph
1907. London: Methuen & Co., (1907). 40 pp ads dated Sept 1907. Original deep red cloth with gilt-decorated spine. First Edition of this tale of espionage sited in Russia. The idea for the story came from an actual 1890s revolutionary attempt to blow up the Observatory at Greenwich. Conrad initially planned this to be a short story (titled "Verloc"); however, as he "got into" it, he lengthened it into a full-blown novel. He then strove to make it... Read More
Offered by Sumner & Stillman