THE HAND OF THE POTTER

New York: Boni & Liveright, 1918. First Edition. Hardcover. Quite likely the Finest copy in existence, bright and clean in a similar dustwrapper. Cloth-backed boards. Typical mixed issue, with the half-title page a cancel (an indication of early status), but with "it" on page191 and with the printing on the upper board resembling hand- lettering (the First Published Edition) of Dreiser's only full-length play; there was also a pre-publication copy which obviously was printed in a very small number. Twenty-five copies of this issue were signed on the title page by the author. This copy is SIGNED on the verso of the half-title page above the ads.

Boni and Liveright printed this book early in 1918, but it was not actually published until September 1919 because it was being considered for production on the New York stage. Laid in is a TYPED LETTER SIGNED from publisher Horace Liveright dated 26 September 1919, the month of publication, forwarding the book to the noted collector Lafayette Butler. Liveright states, "Instead of persuading Mr. Dreiser to finish the trilogy, I have succeeded in getting him to finish THE BULWARK," mentioning that the novel would be published the following September. In fact, unknown to Liveright at the time, Dreiser had stopped working on the novel to begin work on AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, and he would not resume work on it for twenty-five years. THE BULWARK was not published until 1946, after Dreiser's death. This is an absolutely stunning copy of this first collaboration between Dreiser and Liveright in a bright, fresh dustwrapper that was in Butler's private collection for 80 years, from the time it was published until we purchased it in the summer of 1999. A small sticker with a crossed-out price is on the spine presumably placed there by the publisher.