A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce (The Egoist Press, 1918)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce (The Egoist Press, 1918)
This Egoist Press third edition (1918) is of interest to collectors of James Joyce first and early editions, modernist literature, and significant twentieth century literary imprints.
About: A good copy of a genuinely scarce Egoist Press printing, in the original dark green cloth with blind-stamped title to front board and burgundy leather title label to spine. Cloth heavily worn and soiled with fading to spine; corners bumped; boards bowed. Interior sound: title page clean; text block complete and tight; paper toned throughout consistent with age. Top page edges stained green - a noted variant feature of this printing. The ‘By the Same Writer’ page lists Ulysses as ‘In Preparation’, confirming the 1918 Egoist Press dating. No dust jacket issued.
Details:
- Title: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- Author: James Joyce
- Publisher: The Egoist Press, 1 Robert Street, Adelphi, London
- Publication Date: 1918
- Edition: Third Edition (Egoist Press; first published 1917)
- Binding: Original dark green cloth, blind-stamped title to front board, burgundy leather spine label
- Condition: Good
- Distinguishing feature: Green-stained top page edges; Ulysses listed as ‘In Preparation’
Synopsis: Third Egoist Press edition of Joyce’s debut novel; original publisher’s cloth; green-stained top edges; Ulysses listed as ‘In Preparation’; a scarce and historically significant modernist imprint.
Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (first published in book form by The Egoist Press, 1917) is James Joyce’s autobiographical debut novel and one of the foundational texts of literary modernism. The Egoist Press, founded by Harriet Shaw Weaver and Dora Marsden, was among the most important small presses of the early twentieth century, publishing Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Wyndham Lewis, and H.D. All Egoist Press editions of the Portrait are scarce; the 1918 printings, issued in the same year Joyce began serialising Ulysses in The Little Review, carry particular historical resonance for collectors of the modernist canon.