Boy
London, Boriswood Limited, 1931.
Large octavo, 271 pages.
Original light brown buckram with a gilt-ruled and lettered black leather title-label on the spine; top edge gilt, others uncut; buckram mottled and lightly stained, with the spine sunned and the label rubbed and dusty; endpapers and uncut edges a little foxed; a decent copy (and apart from a crease to the top corner of one leaf, internally in excellent condition).
'This, the only Complete Edition of BOY is limited to 145 copies on English hand-made paper, numbered and signed by the author, for private issue to subscribers only. There have also been printed 15 copies for presentation'; this copy is number 47. An 'appalling story of sexual violence on board ship' ('Oxford Dictionary of National Biography') related by its (cabin)-boy. When the trade edition was published in 1934, the book was successfully prosecuted for obscenity; the unexpurgated edition was not republished until 1990. Provenance: David and Marjorie Allen, with their bookplate (by Storie); later, Glen Ralph, with his Wilmar Library bookplate.
Item #111777
Price (AUD):
$750.00