Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Description: Henry Miller. ~ TROPIC OF CAPRICORN ~ Custom Clamshell Case Only. The Obelisk Press, Paris: [1939, Book Date] Excellent Custom Clamshell Case [Not A Book] For The First Edition. Elegant RED Nuba & fine gold cloth, Custom Gilt-Stamped Titles to spine and dynamic GOLD STAMPED SUN design on the side graphically inspired from the DJ's iconic illustration. Finished in rich Black velour on the interior. A superb & unique protective clamshell case for the first edition. Magnificent for this Modern Classic. A Handsome Collector's Custom Case for an important Collection. "Books definitely NOT included" When you place your order: Please confirm the actual size of your first edition as sizes may vary with age, heavily-worn or if the edition is covered in Mylar. The text can be altered to add "signed" or other special requests. Size of this case: 7.7" x 5.6" x 1.25" Generally over 100 in-stock titles. Custom Craft available upon request. Book definitely NOT included Size can be adapted to soft or hardcover first editions.
Seller: TBCL The Book Collector's Library, Montreal, QC, Canada
MILLER, Henry. Tropic of Capricorn. The Obelisk Press, Paris, 1939.
Price: US$440.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo. Original publisher's wrappers printed in red and black; 367pp. Neat ownership signature to front endpaper ("S. Lewis Rand / Paris / 1945"). Price elided on front flap, with new price stamped on spine (as on most copies); moderate creasing, wear and toning to wrapper edges and spine; small (ca 1/2") triangular chip to base of rear cover; just Very Good. In custom cloth slipcase. The third volume in Miller's renowned Obelisk Trilogy, which included Tropic of Cancer (1934) and Black Spring (1936). Like all of Miller's collaborations with Jack Kahane's Obelisk Press, this is a fragile book, rarely found in good condition; the present example shows ample evidence of use, but is still a presentable and complete copy.
Seller: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.
Miller, Henry. Tropic of Capricorn , signed and inscribed true first edition. Obelisk Press, 1939.
Price: US$4139.57 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Henry Miller (1939) Tropic of Capricorn , true first edition, published in Paris by the Obelisk Press. Signed and inscribed by the author in blue ink on the front free endpaper in the month of publication: To / Miola and Annie / from / Henry Miller / with best of greetings / Paris / 5/ 25/ 39 . First edition, first state, with Henry Miller and 60 FRS on spine, printed flaps, price on both of them not blocked, no price on back panel and yellow errata slip affixed on the title page (Jackson and Ashley, Henry Miller A Bibliography of Primary Sources, Volume II, A21a). Octavo in printed red wrappers, 367 numbered pages. One of only 1,000 copies printed. Condition: The book is square and tight, strong binding, light edge-wear and creasing to wrappers mainly at the bottom where the covers are oversized; three very short closed tears, the longest being 13 mm to joins tips, a touch of soiling to spine which is slightly creased, a faint damp stain on the back wrapper which doesn t affect the inner pages. Traces of discrete and professional mending at spine very bottom, not affecting the lettering, and hinges. Housed in a quarter-bound tobacco leather and cloth clamshell box. A very good, fresh copy. Although the book publication was scheduled for February, 1939 and so it is stated on the half title verso, it was delayed until May (Jackson and Ashley, Volume II, p. 12). Tropic of Capricorn, Miller s masterpiece along with Tropic of Cancer, was one of the great censorship cases of Twentieth Century and it was published in Paris as Miller s works were banned in the United States for their explicit sexual contents until the 1960s. First and Fine
Seller: First and Fine, Birmingham, United Kingdom
MILLER, Henry.. Tropic of Capricorn.. Paris: The Obelisk Press, 1939, 1939.
Price: US$6144.68 + shipping
Description: First edition, first printing, first issue, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper prior to publication, "To Audrey Beecham, from her well wisher, Henry Miller, 1/5/39". Copies are rare inscribed. Beecham was a "poet and eccentric" (ODNB), and a descendent of Thomas Beecham, founder of the eponymous pharmaceuticals empire. Miller published several of her poems while editor at Delta magazine. She once took an extended holiday from her Oxford studies to run guns for the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War, and when she graduated in 1937, she moved to Paris, where she befriended Miller, Anaïs Nin, and Lawrence Durrell. In the 1940s, she spent much of her time in London, where she garnered a serious poetic reputation, and befriended Joe Ackerley and Dylan Thomas: "she prided herself on her mastery of martial arts and on her claim to have knocked out Dylan Thomas cold when he made unwelcome advances to her" (ibid.) To the surprise of her contemporaries, she applied for and was appointed the warden of Nightingale Hall, the women's residence at the University of Nottingham, in 1950. Lord David Cecil remarked on her unexpected appointment, "There's no martinet like a reformed rake" (ibid.) Pearson notes that publication of Tropic of Capricorn was initially scheduled for February 1939 but was delayed until 10 May 1939, "as a result of which few copies were sold before the beginning of the war, the death of Kahane, and the shutting down of the Obelisk Press". It was banned in America until the landmark 1961 obscenity trial that saw Tropic of Cancer declared non-obscene, a watershed moment in 20th-century publishing that was instrumental in ushering in the liberal social mores of the Sixties. This is a first issue copy, with the price of 60 francs printed on the spine and the errata slip present on the title page. Pearson A60; Porter, p. 12. Octavo. Original buff wrappers with flaps, spine lettered in red, front lettered in black on red ground with astrological motifs in buff, edges untrimmed. Housed in a custom red cloth flat-backed box. With yellow errata slip tipped-in on title page as issued. Spine ends and upper corner of rear flap chipped, wrappers creased but very bright, nicked with a few short closed tears, rear wrapper toned and soiled, occasional marks to endmatter. A very good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Miller, Henry. Tropic of Capricorn.. Obelisk Press, Paris, 1939.
Price: US$6500.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, one of only 1000 copies printed in Paris, to avoid obscenity laws in the United States. Octavo, original red and white wrappers. Association copy, inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the front free endpaper, "To Henry Church with best wishes, Henry Miller 5/5/39." Henry Church and his wife Barbara were patrons of the arts in 1930s-40s France, and were friends with many of the important writers of the era. In near fine condition with light rubbing to the fragile wrappers. With first issue price of 60 francs printed on the spine. With errata slip, often not found, tipped to title page. Rare and desirable signed and inscribed example of this cornerstone of modern literature. Tropic of Capricorn, with its focus on on Henry Millerâs Brooklyn youth, concludes his famed autobiographical trilogyâ"following Tropic of Cancer (1934) and Black Spring (1936). Once hailed by Norman Mailer as âthe last great American pioneer,â Miller sparked much controversy over the novelâs explicit descriptions of sexual encounters. âAlthough his two most important works, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, were published in Paris in the 1930s, because of their heavy sexual content, they were not published in the United States until the early 1960s, when Millerâs work became the leading battlefield in the war over âpornographicâ literatureâ (Hoffman, 108). Listed by Modern Library as one of the 100 greatest novels of the twentieth century.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.