HENRY JAMES FIRST EDITIONS AT
ASH RARE BOOKS
43 HURON ROAD
LONDON SW17 8RE
UNITED KINGDOM

London : William Heinemann, 1898. First edition. Two stories by James, including the first appearance in book form of “The Turn of the Screw”, still his most compelling and hotly debated story, adapted and filmed on multiple occasions. The second story, “Covering End”, was originally intended as a play for Ellen Terry. “Mr James holds us and thrills us, strikes us with wonder, strikes us with awe; but over and above this, more than anything else, he delights us with the pure, the joyous delight of art, of beauty. It is incredible, it is impossible; and Mr James has done it” (Daily Chronicle, 17th November 1898).
Crown 8vo (187mm x 115mm), [iv]310[ii] +[32pp advertisements]. Bound in a handsome recent full navy morocco, banded and gilt; preserving the original cloth at rear; all edges gilt; marbled endleaves; very faint mark to rear board but a clean and highly attractive copy in a superior binding.

SOLD

London : W. Collins Sons & Co., (1917). First edition : one of just 2,000 copies. James mauling the plutocrats and laissez-faire capitalism – a novel unfinished at the time of his death, but here concluded with his extensive working notes, as well a perceptive preface by Percy Lubbock. “Nearer than anything else we possess to a living image of the creative process itself” (Manchester Guardian).
Post 8vo (21cm). (viii),(348)pp. Photogravure portrait frontispiece by Emil Otto Hoppé (1878-1972). Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; spine a touch darkened; minor wear at tips; a few slight marks; mild tanning of endpapers; some spotting, mainly of edges, but still a good copy.

£100

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