THE SHADOW LINE. A Confession
by Conrad, Joseph
- Used
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Yarmouth, Maine, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
1917. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1917. Original blue cloth decorated in gilt, with dust jacket.
First American Edition, published about a month after Dent's London edition, of one of Conrad's most autobiographical tales. To quote from the dust jacket, The "shadow line" is that dim boundary that divides youth from maturity. How a young first mate, who unexpectedly finds himself in command of a sailing vessel, leaves his carefree youth behind forever in the agonizing responsibility of a twenty-one day voyage from Bankok [sic] to Singapore. His ship is becalmed, the whole crew stricken with fever and no quinine in the medicine chest! The American edition was set from proof sheets supplied by Dent, after which Conrad made changes that were effected in the UK edition but not in the US one; as a result, "the American edition provides an interesting intermediate text between the ENGLISH REVIEW and the first Dent edition, showing the extensive changes made from serial to copy text for the book, as well as the further polishing which took place in proof" [Cagle]. This is a fine copy. This copy has the scarce 1917 dust jacket, which is scarcer than the Dent dust jacket; American jackets reading "Doubleday Doran" on their spines are from later printings after 1927. It is in very good-plus condition (spine browned as always with these DP&Co jackets, just a bit of soil and edge-wear). Supino A20.4.0 (this copy); Cagle A21b.1. Provenance: discreet bookplate of the Conrad bibliographer David J. Supino.
First American Edition, published about a month after Dent's London edition, of one of Conrad's most autobiographical tales. To quote from the dust jacket, The "shadow line" is that dim boundary that divides youth from maturity. How a young first mate, who unexpectedly finds himself in command of a sailing vessel, leaves his carefree youth behind forever in the agonizing responsibility of a twenty-one day voyage from Bankok [sic] to Singapore. His ship is becalmed, the whole crew stricken with fever and no quinine in the medicine chest! The American edition was set from proof sheets supplied by Dent, after which Conrad made changes that were effected in the UK edition but not in the US one; as a result, "the American edition provides an interesting intermediate text between the ENGLISH REVIEW and the first Dent edition, showing the extensive changes made from serial to copy text for the book, as well as the further polishing which took place in proof" [Cagle]. This is a fine copy. This copy has the scarce 1917 dust jacket, which is scarcer than the Dent dust jacket; American jackets reading "Doubleday Doran" on their spines are from later printings after 1927. It is in very good-plus condition (spine browned as always with these DP&Co jackets, just a bit of soil and edge-wear). Supino A20.4.0 (this copy); Cagle A21b.1. Provenance: discreet bookplate of the Conrad bibliographer David J. Supino.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Sumner & Stillman (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 15402
- Title
- THE SHADOW LINE. A Confession
- Author
- Conrad, Joseph
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Date Published
- 1917
- Keywords
- Maritime; Autobiography
- Bookseller catalogs
- Fiction (Early 20th Century); Maritime;
Terms of Sale
Sumner & Stillman
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Sumner & Stillman
Biblio member since 2009
Yarmouth, Maine
About Sumner & Stillman
Founded in 1980, Sumner & Stillman is a small family business providing personal service in the buying and selling of literary first editions of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) for over 30 years.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Leaves
- Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...