Display Signed Copies Only Display All Inventory on Abebooks

Available Copies from Independent Booksellers

C.3.3.; [Wilde, Oscar]. The Ballad of Reading Gaol. New York: Benj. R. Tucker, Publisher, 1899.

Price: US$199.95 + shipping

Condition: Fair

Description: New York: Benj. R. Tucker, Publisher, 1899. SECOND AMERICAN EDITION, FIRST BY THIS PUBLISHER. 44 pages. Fair. Tight binding; retaining front wrap but not rear (if there was one); pages have a few smudges; bookplate on front endpaper; a few tiny tears; tape and chip to front wrap; moderate wear to hardcovers. Scarce. SEE OUR OTHER LISTINGS FOR MORE INTERESTING RARE AND COLLECTIBLE BOOKS. .

Seller: LaCelle Rare Books, Chadwick, MO, U.S.A.

WILDE, Oscar writing as "C.3.3.". The Ballad of Reading Gaol.. NY: Benj. R. Tucker,, 1899.

Price: US$300.00 + shipping

Description: 44 pp. Small tear to the fore-edge of one leaf, else very good plus in two part gilt-stamped cloth with darkened spine.

Seller: Jeff Maser, Bookseller - ABAA, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

WILDE, OSCAR. The Ballad of Reading Gaol by C. 3. 3. New York Benj. R. Tucker 1899, 1899.

Price: US$750.00 + shipping

Description: First American Edition. Three pirated editions of WildeÕs classic poem were issued in America in 1899, the Tucker edition. precedes the other two and is the True First American Edition. Issued in paper wrappers and cloth, this copy is the rare hardbound state. Gilt-stamped blue cloth with white cloth spine. Hinges cracked. Some minor foxing to the preliminaries, at little darkening at spine very good. Rare.

Seller: James Pepper Rare Books, Inc., ABAA, Santa Barbara, CA, U.S.A.

[RADICAL & PROLETARIAN LITERATURE] C.3.3. [pseud. Oscar Wilde]. The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Benj. R. Tucker, New York, 1899.

Price: US$825.00 + shipping

Description: 12mo (18.5cm.); publisher's two-toned cloth (white over blue), upper cover lettered and ruled in gilt, unadorned spine; [8],44pp. Some minor shelf wear, white portion of cloth binding rather soiled and toned along spine, short closed tear to title page fore-edge not approaching text, old ink spot affecting first few leaves, else interior fine. Very Good and sound overall. Often considered to be the first American edition, this imprint is actually preceded by the Brentano's ca. 1898 edition. This edition was published in two states, one in which the text appears on rectos only, the second (including this copy) printed on rectos and versos: "Both editions, that printed on one side and that printed on both sides, are from the same type. It is therefore clear that they are not.two independent editions, but the one-side issue constitutes merely a kind of de-luxe variety, while the two-sided is a cheaper, popular version of the same edition" (HORODISCH, pp. 76-77). Issued by Benjamin R. Tucker, the noted anarchist publisher and editor of the journal Liberty, in which Tucker published the essay "The Criminal Jailers of Oscar Wilde" in 1895. Tucker and Emma Goldman were two of the few Americans to publicly defend Wilde during his trial (George Haggerty, Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures (2013), p. 52.

Seller: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.