Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
D.H. Lawrence. The Rainbow. Methuen, London, 1915.
Price: US$700.72 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 1915 hardcover in very good condition. clean, square and tight. corners bumped, chipped and rubbed to extremities. Methuen Colonial Library list on ffep and end paper. smal linscrition of numbers on top title page. See photos. If you need more photos please contact me. Delivered via Fedex couriers
Seller: edward syndercombe, Pretoria, GAUTE, South Africa
D H Lawrence. The Rainbow. London Methuen 1915, 1915.
Price: US$1114.79 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: The Colonial Library Edition - aproximately 500 were published for the Colonial Library, and these books escaped the pulping of copies of The Rainbow after the court obscenity ruling. Bound in rust cloth with gilt lettering and decoration to spine. There is slight staining to the boards and the edges are bumped. Endpapers have the Colonial Library list of titles 'published as far as possible simultaneously with their appearance in England'. Pages are age tanned with occasional foxing. Front hinge is beginning to crack. Overall a good copy of this rare edition.
Seller: Reader's Books, Petworth, United Kingdom
LAWRENCE, D. H.. The Rainbow.. Methuen, London, 1915.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: 463 pp. 8vo, publisher's blue cloth stamped in gold. First edition. Occasional light foxing; some borwning to fore-edge; gold on spine slightly dimmed; but a very nice copy of an extremely scarce book, most copies having been destroyed soon after publication.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Lawrence, D.H.. The Rainbow. Methuen & Co. Ltd, London, 1915.
Price: US$1750.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Very Good, lacking the jacket. Blue-green buckram, toned at the spine, rubbed and slightly frayed at the edges, with gilt lettering on the spine, white ink library call at the foot. Square, bound with some reading wear, foxing at the endpapers, small bookplate from the Institute for Sex Research on the front endpaper, contemporaneous newspaper clipping about the book's suppression tipped-in on the verso of the half-title with related toning on the title page, vintage bookseller's catalog entry pasted on the verso of the rear endpaper. One of the rare copies that survived the book's suppression that took place just six weeks after its publication. Given the book's "obscene" nature, it's fitting this copy once belonged to the library at the Institute for Sex Research.
Seller: Carpetbagger Books, Woodstock, IL, U.S.A.
LAWRENCE, D.H.. The Rainbow. Methuen, London, 1915.
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 8vo, blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, and title in blind on the front cover. London: Methuen, 1915. First Edition. Near fine copy of a early Lawrence title, scarce, as half the edition was withdrawn due to obscenity charges.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
LAWRENCE, D.H.. The Rainbow.. Methuen, London., 1915.
Price: US$2866.59 + shipping
Description: First edition. Octavo. 463 pages. Four-page publishers' catalogue, dated Autumn 1915, at rear. 2500 copies printed, of which about half were destroyed when the book was deemed by magistrates to be obscene. On the title-page is the publisher's presentation ink-stamp from which one can infer that this is a pre-publication copy and which no doubt explains how it escaped the pulpers.Small nick to top edge of front free endpaper. Some slight fading to front cover. Small snags to tail of spine. Very good. No dustwrapper.
Seller: Peter Ellis, Bookseller, ABA, ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Lawrence, D. H.. The Rainbow. Methuen, London, 1915.
Price: US$3250.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. [viii], 463, [1], [4, ads] pp. 8vo. A spectacular copy of the first edition. "Methuen published The Rainbow in September 1915, but it got savage reviews, most of which attacked what was understood as the book's overt sexuality, and it was withdrawn from sale. At Bow Street magistrates' court on 13 November it was banned as obscene (Lawrence having no opportunity to defend it). Its religious language, emotional and sexual explorations of experience, and sheer length had given its readers problems, but it was Ursula's lesbian encounter with a schoolteacher in the chapter 'Shame' which had finally condemned it in the eyes of the law and of a country now focused on conflict" (ODNB). Roberts A7 Publisher's blue cloth, spine stamped in gilt. Touch of wear to tips, else a fine copy in a custom blue morocco slipcase and chemise. Bookplate on front pastedown, Gotham Book Mart ticket on rear pastedown [viii], 463, [1], [4, ads] pp. 8vo
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
D. H. Lawrence. The Rainbow. London: Methuen, 1915.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Beautiful First Edition of Lawrences controversial, overtly sexual novel, initially conceived to be Part One of the authors Women in Love. Rebound in forest green three-quarter leather with raised bands, title and decoration to spine gilt, marbled endpapers, a near fine copy with minimal wear. Published in September 1915 to fierce reviews condemning the books overt sexuality, it was soon withdrawn from sale. The edition was subsequently suppressed and it is said that only a mere sixteen copies escaped destruction. Much publicity derived from the November court case at Bow Street Magistrates Court where the book was banned as obscene. Lawrence, given no opportunity to publicly defend his work, was understandably frustrated and disturbed, but still plowed ahead with Women in Love. The Rainbow lists at number 48 on the prestigious Random House/Modern Library 100 Best Books of the Twentieth Century. The novel was filmed in 1989 by famed director Ken Russell and starred Sammy Davis (as the young schoolteacher), Amanda Donohoe, David Hemmings and with Glenda Jackson playing the mother of the character she played in Women in Love.
Seller: Mystery Pier Books, Inc.,ABAA, ILAB, ABA, West Hollywood, CA, U.S.A.
CONRAD, Joseph.. Victory. An Island Tale.. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1915, 1915.
Price: US$8599.78 + shipping
Description: First British edition, first impression, in an exceptional example of the scarce dust jacket, one of the earliest graphically designed jackets issued by a British publisher, featuring a specially commissioned illustration not based on the cloth cover design nor an illustration in the book. Victory was published as part of Methuen's "Popular Novels" series, which marked a sea change in the history of British publishing and of the dust jacket. Earlier jackets typically consisted of lettering and an illustrated design based on the blocking of the binding. Only two years earlier, the jacket for Methuen's 1913 edition of John Oxenham's Bees in Amber bore the jingle: "This outer wrap is only meant / To keep my coat from detriment. / Please take it off, and let me show / The better one I wear below." Their "Popular Novels" series also included D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow and P. G. Wodehouse's Something New. This copy is in the first state, with the comma after "Essex Street" on the title page. The novel was first published in the US earlier the same year. Cagle A19b(1); Keating 113; Wise 25. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Housed in a custom red quarter morocco slipcase and chemise. Tiny bumps to cloth at extremities; dust jacket slightly rubbed, extremities lightly worn with short split to front flap fold, overall remarkably bright, flaps without price as issued: a fine copy in near-fine dust jacket.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom