Description

“ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREAT LITERARY MASTERPIECES”: FIRST EDITION OF LORD JIM, AN EXTRAORDINARY PRESENTATION ASSOCIATION COPY, WARMLY INSCRIBED BY JOSEPH CONRAD TO CLOSE FRIEND CORA CRANE, AUTHOR STEPHEN CRANE’S WIFE, ONE OF ONLY SIX INSCRIBED COPIES KNOWN TO EXIST

CONRAD, Joseph. Lord Jim, A Tale. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1900. Octavo, original green cloth. Housed in a custom half blue morocco clamshell box. 

First edition, first issue of Conrad’s novel about the complex nature of morality and the torment of guilt, “one of the world’s literary masterpieces,” exceptional presentation association copy warmly inscribed in the year of publication to the writer and wife of author Stephen Crane: “To Cora Crane with the author’s friendly regards. 16th Oct. 1900.” Extremely rare, one of only six known inscribed copies.

To critic Cedric Watts, Lord Jim stands as “one of the world’s literary masterpieces.” Though he began working on it in 1898, with the intent of it being a short story, the novel “took itself into its own hands, and swept its writer with it into a profound study of a psychic phenomenon” (New York Times Book Review). When Conrad began writing it, he had recently met the author Stephen Crane, a writer whose Red Badge of Courage was already being spoken of as having influenced Conrad’s The Nigger of the “Narcissus.” The two expatriates were at that time both residing in London, and shared a publisher (Heinemann). Conrad, a man in middle age, was at the beginning of his writing career. Crane, in his mid-20s, was already an acclaimed author with much wisdom to impart to Conrad, though, unbeknownst to him, Crane was near the end of his brief life. “Theirs was a… friendship of two artists, founded on their common vision of the creature man as a lonely pigmy in a universe indifferent, when not actively hostile, to his humanity.” Conrad was greatly struck by their initial encounter, writing to Crane that “I must write to you before I write a single word for a living today… The world looks different to me now since our long powwow… therefore I write to you as though we had been born together before the beginning of things” (Gilkes, 127-8). Their wives, Jessie Conrad and Cora Crane, were likewise friendly, and the two literary couples met together frequently.

Cora Crane was already a scandalous figure when she met and became the common-law wife of Stephen Crane. She had had several common-law husbands in quick succession and, while a writer of short stories and non-fiction, earned her living by running a prominent hotel of ill repute in Florida. She met Crane when he stopped briefly in Jacksonville while on his way to cover the Spanish American War. Crane rescued her from her debased circumstances, and the two then traveled to Greece to cover the Greco-Turkish War, making Cora the first known female war correspondent. After the war, the two went to London and quickly established themselves in literary society, at which time the couple met and befriended Joseph Conrad. Stephen Crane died five months before Conrad inscribed this volume. Only six signed copies of Lord Jim are known, with four of those copies set aside for institutional donation. Thus, this exceptionally rare signed copy is one of only a very few copies known that could ever become available on the open market. First edition, first issue, with all first issue points. Serialized in Blackwood’s Magazine, beginning in late 1899. No dust jacket was issued with this work. Cagle A5.a. Keating 25. Smith 5. Wise 7. With Cora Crane’s signature and address (the one she shared with Stephen Crane) on front paste down. Owner signature below Conrad’s inscription.

Faint dampstain to bright cloth front cover. Only minor edgewear to spine. An extraordinary, near-fine inscribed copy with a most exceptional provenance.