THE PRIVATE LIFE | Lord Beaupré | The Visits

1893. [the John Quinn copy] New York: Harper & Brothers, 1893. 4 pp undated ads. Original blue-grey cloth decorated in silver and gilt.

First American Edition, primary binding state (with the elaborate silver grille-work on front cover and spine, and with the leaves' top edge stained ochre). This primary binding also appears, less commonly, in olive cloth; there is also a total of seven secondary, less ornate, bindings. THE WHEEL OF TIME... was soon issued as the companion volume to this one, containing the other three stories that had appeared in the six-story English edition of THE PRIVATE LIFE. This is a close-to-fine copy (spine cloth slightly darkened). Supino 39.2.0; Edel & Laurence A39b. Provenance: bookplate of John Quinn (1870-1924) -- the Ohio-born lawyer who was not simply a major collector of 1890-1924 literature, he was an important patron of literary figures. He bought up most of Joseph Conrad's manuscripts to provide the author with much-needed cash, he gave advice and financial assistance to Ezra Pound and to T.S. Eliot (in gratitude, Eliot sent Quinn the original manuscript of THE WASTE LAND), he helped W.B. Yeats found the Abbey Theatre, he fought censorship battles over ULYSSES for James Joyce.