THIS SIDE OF PARADISE

London: W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, 1923. Early UK printing of Fitzgerald's first novel, centered around the lives of young socialites in post-World War I New York. Both the first and second UK printings of This Side of Paradise vary "unauthoritatively from the first Scribner's printing of the novel in some 850 readings. This figure does not include variants caused by Collins's omission of periods after abbreviations or alteration of quotation marks. Of the 850 variants, 32 are substantive" (Bruccoli, p.22). As with all Fitzgerald's pre-Gatsby works published by Collins, this title is scarce in dustjacket; we find no examples in the auction record, and Matthew Bruccoli, Fitzgerald's bibliographer, mentioned not seeing a jacket for the first Collins printing, and the only observed example of the second printing seen in Fitzgerald's own scrapbooks, lacking the rear cover and flaps. Bruccoli A5.2.b. Second Impression. Octavo (19cm); red cloth, with titles stamped in black on spine and front cover; dustjacket; viii,292pp. Base of spine gently nudged, with a few tiny tears; upper edge of textblock slightly dusty, with some faint offsetting to endpapers, else clean throughout; Near Fine. Dustjacket is uniformly dust-soiled, edge-worn, with several shallow losses, a few scattered stains, and a few long tears with attendant creases, neatly tape-mended on verso; substantially complete and unrestored, but Very Good only.