Description
For sale: a Rare and Exceptional second edition third printing hardcover copy of Stephen Hero by James Joyce with no dust jacket. Revised Edition unstated 1955 New Directions. First Printing with no subsequent printing.
Good hardcover with bright boards with marks and heavy soiling on both boards. Also with, strong ink on a lightly sunned spine, light soiling on the top of the toned page blocks, mild spine tilt, rolled, rubbed spine ends, heavy edge wear and rounded and bumped corners. The interior of the book is in Very Good condition with an erased prices on the first free end paper. No other marks, inscriptions, or signs of ownership. The rear end paper and the interior pages are clean and lightly toned, making it an excellent addition to any collection.
No dust jacket.
It was originally rejected on grounds of indecency—so the story goes— by twenty publishers, whereupon Joyce threw the manuscript in the fire, but Mrs. Joyce rescued several unburnt portions. Although Joyce later entirely rewrote his novel of a young Irishman’s rebellion against church, country and family, this early version is beautifully composed, the mood being more discursive and personal than in A Portrait . Many episodes later cut for the sake of good novelistic form, especially autobiographical episodes of sensual and family life, are fully presented, with some of the most vivacious dialogue Joyce ever wrote. Between them, the two versions give us a clear example of Joyce’s literary development as well as many details of his life. This edition of Stephen Hero for the first time printed the five missing pages of the novel found among the papers in the Joyce Collection of the Cornell University Library. These pages fill gaps in the text as edited in 1956 by John J. Slocum and Herbert Cahoon and also extend the narrative.
Ships promptly in a secure mailer with the book wrapped in both craft paper and bubble wrap.
