Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Fowles, John. The Collector. Jonathan Cape, 1963.
Price: US$800.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Published in London by Jonathan Cape in 1963. First edition, indicated by statement "First Published 1963" on the copyright page. This copy is INSCRIBED by author in a tipped-in slip, "Ernest Rasdall/ Best Wishes/ John Fowles/ 20.viii.1966." Book fine. DJ near fine except for sunning on spine. DJ price is 18s net. We will provide a certificate of authenticity for this item.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
Fowles, John. The Collector. Jonathan Cape, London, 1963.
Price: US$875.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Uncorrected Proof of this first novel from Fowles. Original printed wrappers from Cape remain bright with just a few minor spots of soiling. The spine shows some creasing with light rubbing along rear joint and at spine ends. Bookplate signed by Fowles in Lyme Regis laid in. Housed in a custom brown clamshell case which is in fine shape.
Seller: Peruse the Stacks, Gig Harbor, WA, U.S.A.
John Fowles. The Collector. Jonathan Cape, London, 1963.
Price: US$899.06 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: A fine first edition copy of John Fowles' debut novel, with the author's signature loosely inserted. The first edition, first impression, with no subsequent printings listed.Signed to a loosely inserted slip of paper.In the original publisher's unclipped dust wrapper.'The Collector' is an unsettling novel, following a psychotic young man who wins the lottery and uses the money to buy an isolated house. He becomes increasingly obsessed with an art student, Miranda Grey, eventually kidnapping her and keeping her locked in his cellar.Only two years after this publication, the novel was adapted into an Academy Award nominated film.The success of this novel allowed John Fowles to quit his teaching career to focus full-time on his writing. In the original publisher's cloth binding, in the original unclipped dust wrapper. Externally, fine. Dust wrapper is very lightly edge worn with a few minor marks. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean. Fine
Seller: Rooke Books PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
John FOWLES. The Collector: [a novel]. London: Jonathan Cape, 1963.
Price: US$970.21 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Rust brown cloth (the ordinary issue - copies were issued too in black cloth, precedence indeterminate, and not nearly as uncommon thus as some dealers hope); (Tom Adams) dustwrapper. Faint spots to fore-edge and endpapers, dustwrapper spotted at flaps, lower cover panel rather dusty, with mild fraying at head of spine and a tiny tear (minimal loss) at head of front flap. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Reg Gadney with my best wishes John Fowles Lyme Regis 14/3/99"; loosely inserted the printed programme, single sheet folded, for the Bush Theatre Club's production of The Collector, [1972]. "As stark as a police report, this novel opens with the confession of a young suburban clerk who has kidnapped an art student from outside her home in Hampstead. In his own colourless, yet curiously expressive words, Frederick Clegg tells how he held her prisoner in a remote house in the country, which he had bought for the purpose with money won in the football pools . . ." (publisher's blurb). Tom Maschler tells in his memoir Publisher (2005) of his first meeting with John Fowles. Maschler was then a young director at Jonathan Cape, Fowles a schoolmaster in north London. "I told John how much I had admired The Collector and then, without further ado, I asked the question which most preoccupied me: 'Is this your first book?' The answer came back immediately: 'Good God, no.' 'You have written others?' 'Yes.' 'How many?' 'Nine.'" Maschler went on to publish rewritten versions of two of these, The Magus and The French Lieutenant's Woman. "It is quite possible," asserted The Times's anonymous reviewer (23 May 1963), "greatly to admire a book and at the same time to dislike it intensely; and this may be many people's reaction to Mr. John Fowles's claustrophobic first novel . . . The Collector is a most efficiently appointed book, but as dank and unhealthy as the cellar it describes." Reg Gadney, himself a novelist, was the second husband of Fay Maschler, first wife of Tom Maschler (they married in 1970 and divorced in 1987). Fowles was godfather to the Maschlers' daughter Alice. The Collector, adapted by David Parker and directed by John Neville, was the first production mounted by the new Bush Theatre Club at Shepherds Bush Green, London. It opened on 6 April 1972, starring Brian McDermott as Clegg and Annette André as Miranda.
Seller: James Fergusson Books & Manuscripts, London, United Kingdom
Fowles, John. The Collector. Jonathan Cape, London, United Kingdom, 1963.
Price: US$998.12 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First UK Edition, First Print. Pp. 282. Maroon boards. This is a true UK first edition (First Impression) with 'First published in 1963' and no reprint statement to the copyright page. A very good copy with tape shadow marks to corners of end pages. In original first state jacket without reviews, jacket, corners clipped although not price clipped. Internally clean pages a touch of spotting to foreedge. Signed by the author John Fowles to the title page. Laid in is a typed card from John Fowles agreeing to sign books for the owner. The card is also signed by the author John Fowles.
Seller: Kelleher Rare Books, Naas, IE, Ireland
Fowles, John. The Collector. Jonathan Cape, London, 1963.
Price: US$1200.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: INSCRIBED FIRST UK EDITION of John Fowles' The Collector. Published in London by Jonathan Cape in 1963. First Published 1963 stated on copyright page. INSCRIBED by the author on a laid-in bookplate; inscription reads "Gill Moody, Johnson City/John Fowles/with sincerest good wishes/August, 2001 "Book fine. DJ fine. DJ price reads 18s net. Housed in a custom-made collector's slipcase.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
Fowles, John. The Collector. London: Jonathan Cape, 1963.
Price: US$1400.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, first printing of the author's first book. Presentation copy, signed and inscribed by Fowles to the front endpaper: "To Margaret Davies/ with the author's regards/ John Fowles/ [crossed out number] October 1st, 1963/ Cheltenham." Original publisher's orange cloth, spine lettered in gilt; original first issue dust jacket, designed by Tom Adams. About fine with a slight lean to spine; in an unclipped dust jacket with a very slight touch of toning the upper spine ends and some mild toning to rear panel, and two tiny abrasion at front panel and spine, else fine. A beautiful inscribed copy of the author's scarce first book. The Collector is a chilling psychological thriller that puts the reader into the mind of both abductor and captive. The story follows the abduction of Miranda Gray, a middle-class art student, by Frederick Clegg, a lonely and psychotic young clerk. Believing Miranda will fall in love with him in time, he keeps her captive in his basement, where he keeps his butterfly collection. Aspects of the story can be interpreted as commentary on the changing class structure of 1960s England, as it "dramatizes the clash between a socially entrenched, wealthy middle class and an underprivileged but upwardly mobile working or lower middle class." John Fowles' first book, The Collector was a sensation and was adapted into a film by the same name soon after publication.
Seller: B & B Rare Books, Ltd., ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Fowles, John. THE COLLECTOR. Jonathan Cape, London, 1963.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: Inscribed first printing of the still-shocking story of captivity and resistance. Fowles's first published novel, a brutal work whose end is promised in its beginning, and which keeps every promise it makes. Full of allusions to THE TEMPEST - the Collector takes the false name Ferdinand; his captive records him as Caliban - and with a certain thematic resemblance, THE COLLECTOR explores in a modern setting the violent enactments of class and gender hierarchies present in that play. Written in two first-person narratives: one by a young man who comes to believe that his personal disappointments entitle him absolutely to ownership of a human being; and the other by the woman he kidnaps, whose tireless efforts to escape and maintain dignity are no use to her, who fights with every ounce of ingenuity she possesses, and loses. THE COLLECTOR is a novel in some ways wiser than its writer, and certainly wiser than its contemporary critics, for whom sympathy for a misogynist still passed as daringly provocative, and to whom psychological proximity to a killer was a thrill of sorts. But the intimacy of the dual narration sets a trap for the unwary, for those primed to love an anti-hero: sympathy for the Collector himself is a temptation set out for the reader desperate for an escape, ready to flee from horror, into the cozier space of the winning side. The victim's perspective was, and is, simply too much for some critics to bear; her situation too hard to keep company with, though the novel's greatest treasures are found there. THE COLLECTOR's real genius lies in Fowles's own cold and fearless gaze: in life, he seems to say, the good and the brave do exist; dignity and courage, wit and nerve, even innocence, these are all real; and hope, of all the virtues, is the one that dies hardest and last. 7.5'' x 5''. Original rust-orange cloth. In original unclipped (18s.) dust jacket. 283 pages. Inscribed by Fowles on title page: "Don Klein / John Fowles, Lyme Regis". Minor edgewear to boards. Jacket rear panel faintly foxed; toned along edges.
Seller: Type Punch Matrix, Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
John Fowles. The Collector Signed John Fowles Variant Black Boards. Jonathan Cape, UK, 1963.
Price: US$1617.02 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The Collector Signed by John Fowles First Edition Jonathan Cape 1963 Variant Black Boards. With the scarce variant black boards. No inscriptions, no foxing or toning. A VG+ book with faint mark to front cover (see image) in the seldom seen black variant boards. In like dust jacket, not price clipped. SIGNED by John Fowles directly to title page without dedication.
Seller: Brought to Book Ltd, London, United Kingdom
FOWLES, John.. The Collector.. London Jonathan Cape, 1963.
Price: US$1815.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, first impression, signed & dated by the author; 8vo; publisher's brick red cloth, titles to spine gilt, brown topstain, pictorial dust jacket with artwork by Tom Adams, a near-fine copy in the minimally rubbed dust jacket with a few marks to the rear panel. A very good first edition of John Fowles' landmark first book, inscribed in the year of publication, 'John Fowles, 1963'; such coeval inscriptions are distinctly uncommon. The jacket design by Tom Adams hints darkly at the novel's contents.
Seller: Shapero Rare Books, London, United Kingdom