June 2019: Various Editions of One Title

The May 2019 meeting brought together various editions of the same title within a collector's library.  Some collectors "follow the flag" of international writers and seek out both the first edition from the author's native country and the first edition from the collector's country.  Collectors may also seek out significant later editions.  Later editions may be corrected, revised, or expanded.  Later editions also may be differently illustrated or include a new introduction by the author or a noted critic.  Other sought-after editions may include proofs and advance review copies, signed copies, association copies, limited editions, and anniversary editions.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket… (1838)

During the nineteenth century the reading public was especially fascinated in reading about explorations and discoveries in far off lands and sea voyages.  Although a work of fiction, Poe's Pym gained immediate notoriety both because of its sensational subject matter and because it appeared to some to be a true report of a perilous voyage.  Poe's borrowings from Benjamin Morrell's Narrative of Four Voyages to the South Seas and Pacific (1832) and other sources were sufficient to give the tale an air of plausibility.  The American edition was not promoted as either fiction or non-fiction; the reader was left to decide.  The publisher of the British edition had other ideas.  He printed it with substantial—though unauthorized—changes to the title, added an additional preface, and omitted the last diary entry which introduced the "shrouded human figure" in the Antarctic which was the one clue that this was most likely a work of fiction. 

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket...

Assembled here is a rare collection of Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, each first edition rare in its own right.  The first three (starting from the left) are each first American edition copies; the fourth (at right) is the first British edition.

Poe, Edgar Allan.  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket...  New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838.  First edition.  The first copy is unsophisticated in the original worn cloth binding with the original paper label title on the spine though somewhat chipped. 

          .  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket...  New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838.  First edition.  The second copy is a sophisticated volume having been repaired with the original spine laid down over a newer spine and a facsimile paper label on the spine. 

          .  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket...  New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838.  First edition.  The third copy has been rebound in a beautiful Stikeman & Co. gilt decorated leather binding sometime from the 1880's through the 1910's.

          .  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket, North America...  London: Wiley and Putnam, 1838.  First British edition.  This copy is unsophisticated in the original brown cloth.  The British edition appeared about ten weeks after the American edition.

Title pages to the American (left) And British (right) first editions of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket...

The Power and the Glory (1940)

In the winter of 1937-38, Graham Greene traveled to the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, Mexico, to see the effects of the government-sponsored suppression of the Catholic church and its campaign for forced secularization.  Out of his journey, Greene wrote the nonfiction travel book The Lawless Roads (alternately titled Another Mexico in the United States) in 1939 and the novel The Power and the Glory in 1940.  In his 1962 introduction, Greene writes, "I think The Power and the Glory was the only novel I have ever written to a thesis"—to distinguish "between the man and his office"—thus creating the juxtaposition between the two central characters: "the idealistic police officer who stifled life from the best possible motives [and the] drunken priest who continued to pass life on."  In 1941, The Power and the Glory won the prestigious British literary award, The Hawthornden Prize, and in 2005, TIME magazine chose it as one of the hundred best English-language novels since 1923.

The Power and the Glory

The editions pictured are (from left to right, bottom row then top row) as follows:

Greene, Graham.  The Power and the Glory.  London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1940.  First edition.  3,500 copies.  In facsimile dust jacket.

          .  The Labyrinthine Ways.  New York: Viking Press, 1940.  First American edition, alternately titled, in both first state and second state.  The first state includes a printing error in the transposition of pages 165 and 256.  Second state copies are those which the publisher recalled then excised and replaced with corrected pages.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Viking Press, 1946.  First American reprint edition with the original title.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  City: Vanguard Library, 1952.  Uniform series reprint.  This copy signed by Greene on the title page.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Time Inc., 1962.  First edition with a new introduction by Greene.  This introduction has been used in most reprints since this appearance.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Viking Press, 1968.  First large print edition.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Viking Press, 1970.  Viking Critical Library edition with text, background, and criticism.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Viking Press, 1990.  Special fiftieth anniversary edition with an introduction by John Updike.  This copy signed by Updike on the first preliminary page.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Easton Press, 2000.  Fine bound edition from the Great Books of the Twentieth Century series, with illustrations by Dennis Lyall.

Copies of The Power and the Glory signed by Graham Greene (left) and John Updyke (right)

Cold Mountain (1997)

This historical novel set during the Civil War is the first book written by Charles Frazier and spent 61 weeks at number one on the New York Times Bestseller list. It has sold over three million copies and received the 1997 National Book Award for Fiction.

Cold Mountain

Frazier, Charles.  Cold Mountain.  New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997.  First edition, first printing. 

          .  Cold Mountain.  New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997.  First edition, eighth printing.  Dedicated and signed by the author on the title page.

Copy of Cold Mountain inscribed by Charles Frazier