A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man. by JOYCE, James - 1916

New York: B. W. Huebsch,, 1916. First edition, finely bound Octavo. Finely bound by the Chelsea Bindery in dark blue morocco, titles and decoration to spine gilt, raised bands, single rule to boards gilt, twin rule to turn-ins gilt, burgundy endpapers, gilt edges. Couple of spots to prelims, an excellent copy in a fine binding. First edition, first printing. Due at least in part to the adverse reception of the Egoist serialisation of A Portrait, no English printer would print the book for fear of prosecution under the obscenity laws. So it was Huebsch that undertook the true first publication. He would send from this print run about 750 sets of sheets for issue in the UK in February 1917. Whilst the number of copies issued in America is undetermined the number could not have been large since he had sold out by March and called for a second printing by April.