THE SHADOW-LINE. A Confession

1917. London & Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, (1917). 18 pp undated ads. Original sage green cloth decorated in brown, with dust jacket.

First Edition, first impression (so stated), of Conrad's third autobiographical work -- this copy printed on laid paper. As Supino explains in detail, the first impression consisted of 5,000 + 80 copies, of which 3,000 were on laid paper for the domestic market, and 2,000 were on (slimmer) wove paper for the colonial market -- but "only 600 copies of the first impression were ever bound for the colonial market, and the remaining 1,400 were diverted to the domestic market." Neither Cagle nor Supino was able to locate a colonial copy in Dent's colonial binding; both bibliographers deduce that the wove-paper copies in the standard binding constitute those 1,400 re-directed copies. This is a remarkably fine, bright copy, essentially as new; the quite uncommon dust jacket, which above Conrad's portrait poses the question "Why did the captain and the silent crew of the ship... have such great and mysterious difficulty in passing latitude 8 20' ?", is in near-fine condition (minor wear at the head of the spine -- as usual because the jacket is taller than the book). Supino A20.1.0 (this copy, with three tissue guards); Cagle A21a.1. Housed in an open-back cloth slipcase. Provenance: discreet bookplate of the Conrad bibliographer David J. Supino.