An Outcast of the Islands

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. 8vo (200 x 128 mm; 7 7/8 x 5 in.) . [ii, ads], [vi], 391, [1] pages. Title-page printed in red and black. Publisher's green cloth, gilt-lettered on spine, top edges gilt, others uncut. A near-fine copy, the top gilt lightly abraded in a few spots, one short closed tear at head of spine, slight wear at extremities. Provenance: H. Stuart Hotchkiss (1913 ownership inscription on front free endpaper). Hotchkiss (ca 1878-1947), a member of Yale's class of 1900 and a lieutenant colonel in the Army during the First World War, was an executive at the United States Rubbed Company in New Haven before becoming President and Chairman of the Board of the Cambridge Rubber Company. He devoted much of his career to developing rubber plantations in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. FIRST EDITION of Conrad's second book, a publication hastily sent to press with multiple errors after its original electrotype plates were destroyed by fire and it was reset. First issue, with "this" for "their" on p. 26, l. 31; "Absolution" for "ablution" p. 110, l. 12; "9" missing on p. 129; and "hate" for "fate" on p. 356, l. 26. Cagle A2(2) binding a; Ehrsam, p. 293; Keating 4; Smith 2; Wise, Conrad 2.