NOTES ON LIFE & LETTERS [inscribed by Conrad]

1921. [inscribed by Conrad] London & Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1921. Original green cloth, with dust jacket.

First Edition (preceded by a 35-copy privately-printed issue). This is a collection of pieces that had appeared, over the prior two years, as 25-copy pamphlets produced by Clement Shorter and by T.J. Wise. This copy is in the second state (with the "S" and "A" of "SEA" hand-stamped onto page xi). The first state lacks these letters entirely; the third and usual state has a cancel leaf with the letters properly printed. According to a Dent employee quoted by Supino, the first state consisted of only about 100 copies, and this second state about 900 copies; the other 8,450 copies (the subsequent binding orders of the first edition) would have been in the third (cancel-leaf) state. This is a near-fine copy (some cracking of the endpapers), in a very good-plus jacket: the jacket's spine is a little darkened as usual, and there is a shallow chip at the head of the spine (not affecting print). Supino A23.3.0; Cagle A51a(2). Housed in a (slightly scuffed) morocco-backed slipcase with inner chemise. This copy is boldly inscribed by Conrad on the front free endpaper, "To Arthur Rogers | from Joseph Conrad | 1921 [followed by Conrad's usual flourish]". We have been unable to identify the recipient, although it has been noted that there was a contemporary bookseller by that name.