JOYCE, James

Dubliners

London, Grant Richards, [1918 (second English edition, from the sheets of the 1917 second American edition)/ 1914].

Octavo, 288 pages (the title and half-title leaves are cancels).

Red cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and front cover; cloth a little sunned, bumped and marked; top edge slightly marked; approximately half the text block tanned as usual (Slocum and Cahoon note 'In all copies examined pp. 193-288 are printed on an inferior grade of pulp paper'); small chip to the top margin of one leaf (pages 55-56); tiny témoin and crease to the bottom corner of one leaf (pages 17-18), impacting slightly on some adjacent bottom corners; minimal signs of use and age; overall, an excellent copy.

'Joyce's troubles did not end with the publication of "Dubliners" on June 15, 1914. Grant Richards was extremely remiss in paying him royalties and could not be persuaded to publish a second edition even after the sale of 504 sets of sheets to B.W. Huebsch, New York, in the autumn of 1916 had used up most of his copies while the demand for them continued. Finally, in order to hold Joyce, Richards reluctantly agreed to issue a second edition of "Dubliners" in 1918. This he did by importing sheets of the 1917 American edition from B.W. Huebsch and binding up just enough sets to satisfy Joyce. It is not known how many copies of this second Grant Richards edition of "Dubliners" exist, but it is scarce' (Slocum and Cahoon: 'A Bibliography of James Joyce, 1882-1941', 1957, page 15). The verso of the title page states 'Printed in the United States of America'.

See Slocum and Cahoon A8 (first edition) and A10 (second American edition, but the first printed there), both of which mention this edition.