273

James Joyce (1882-1941)

Ulysses. First Pirated American Edition.

Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1927 [but actually New York: printed by Adolph and Rudolph Loewinger for Samuel Roth, 1929].
First unauthorized American book edition, pirating the ninth official printing, quarto; with "Jonathan" misspelled on page 2, position of fly title and divisional numeral reversed, and the inversion of type on page 323; rebound in full black morocco, spine gilt-lettered, black textured cloth endpapers; with the original blue front wrapper bound in (partially unopened, chips and small tears from clumsy paperknife-work, occasional aged tape repairs at margins, scattered small stains; front wrapper and final leaf mounted on cardstock, leather decaying at edges, rubbing, finger stains); 8 ½ x 6 in. 

"Copies of this pirated ninth edition reached Paris and were imported into the United States as genuine copies. One of these, sent by Joyce to Bennett A. Cerf of Random House, was used in setting up the first authorized American edition of Ulysses...Many copies of this piracy were seized by the Society for the Suppression of Vice on October 5, 1929." Thus, scarce at auction, with only a handful of copies offered in the last 25 years.

Slocum & Cahoon 19.

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