Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$495.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: [Colophon]: "This first edition of The Escaped Cock by D. H. Lawrence with water-color decorations by the the author, privately published for subscribers only by Harry and Caresse Crosby at their Black Sun Press (Maitre-Imprimeur Lescaret) in September 1929, is limited to 450 numbered copies on Holland Van Gelder Zonen [paper] and 50 copies on Japanese Vellum signed by the author." [printed number]: 331. 6 1/4 in. x 8 3/8 in., frontispiece in color, with glassine paper guard; [xii], [1]-[104], including copyright, colophon & list of 8 other Black Sun titles. Original printed paper wrappers with titling in red & black on spine & front cover, original glassine paper over the wrappers, and later, acetate plastic wraparound over the glassine. Slipcase is broken and missing the spine portion & top-edge portion (both sides & bottom-edge present for restoration). Book edges show a little, age-related tanning, light wear, tanning to spine ends (shown in the scan, which shows the paper covers without the glassine), glasine shows some chipping to corners, tanning to spine area. Copy, overall, is fine, gold & brown, marbled paper-covered slipcase requires expert restoration.
Seller: Peter Keisogloff Rare Books, Inc., Brecksville, OH, U.S.A.
BOYLE, Kay.. Short Stories.. Paris: The Black Sun Press, 1929, 1929.
Price: US$5811.46 + shipping
Description: First edition, first printing, number 10 of 15 copies signed by the author and printed on japon. This is Kay's first book, which inaugurated her career as one of the best American short story writers of the 20th century. The collection was welcomed with outstandingly positive reviews upon publication, the American literary critic Eugene Jolas describing it as "a turning point in the evolution of American literature"; William Carlos Williams stated Boyle picked up where Emily Dickinson left off and proclaimed that her stories "assault our sleep" (quoted in Mellen 1994, p. 139). According to Joan Mellen, Boyle was the most distinguished and consistent short story writer for the New Yorker from 1931 to the mid-1950s; "Kay Boyle might even be considered the creator of what came to be known as the New Yorker story" (Mellen 2004, p. 75). The volume was among the earliest produced by the Black Sun Press, founded in 1928 by Harry and Caresse Crosby; both were good friends of Boyle. The collection comprises seven stories: "Uncle Anne" and "Spring Morning" were published here for the first time; the other five had previously appeared in magazines. The total edition comprised 185 copies, of which 150 were printed on Holland Van Gelder Zonen (to be sold at the bookshop of Harry F. Marks in New York), and 20 printed on Papier d'Arches and designated for France. Provenance: bookplate of the American pharmaceutical entrepreneur, philanthropist, and collector Carl Weeks (1876-1962) on the front pastedown of the card folder. Weeks built Salisbury House in Iowa, where he housed an impressive library of early 20th-century literature. It included suppressed works by James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner, and a wealth of works by the Black Sun Press. Weeks bought most of his Black Sun Press collection from Harry F. Marks, their primary distributor in America. Weeks evidently prized Harry and Caresse's work; his acquisitions also included Crosby's Aphrodite in Flight (1930) and Shadows of the Sun (1928), Archibald MacLeish's New Found Land (1930), a signed copy of James Joyce's Collected Poems (1936), and the manuscript of D. H. Lawrence's The Escaped Cock. Chambers A2a. Joan Mellen: Kay Boyle: Author of Herself, 1994; Joan Mellen, "Boyle, Kay" in Susan Ware & Stacy Lorraine Braukman, eds, Notable American Women, 2004. Octavo. Original wrappers, spine and front cover lettered in black and red, black illustration on rear cover. With glassine jacket. Housed in the publisher's silver card folder with silk ties. Printed in red and black throughout. Free endpapers and blanks excised, couple of spots of foxing, otherwise clean. A near-fine copy in the well-preserved glassine, and retaining the original folder, slightly rubbed with a couple of short splits to joints.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
LAWRENCE, D H. The Escaped Cock. Black Sun Press, 1929.
Price: US$7500.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: SIGNED by the author with "number thirty-nine" written by Lawrence entirely in longhand. "I am risen!" First edition, no. 39 of 50 copies on Japanese vellum signed by the author, with both the publisher s ORIGINAL glassine and ORIGINAL slipcase. Roberts A50b. Octavo. Color-printed frontispiece and 4 color-printed head- and tailpieces after Lawrence. Original printed wrappers, some toning to front edge and spine; glassine dust-wrapper, original marbled paper-covered slipcase, 8 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches (21 x 17 cm); a few tiny chips in glassine; slipcase a tad worn). The Black Sun Press first published The Escaped Cock as a limited edition in September 1929. Later published by Secker, 1931, under the title The Man Who Died in a limited edition of 2000 copies. This original French publication, signed and numbered by Lawrence, is far rarer and much more desirable. You'll not find a finer copy. Book #Cv2223. $7500. We specialize in Rare Ayn Rand, history, and science.
Seller: PEN ULTIMATE RARE BOOKS, Pine Plains, NY, U.S.A.