Tropic of Cancer. by Miller, Henry - January 1939

Paris: The Obelisk Press, January 1939. 8vo (19.3 cm, 7.6"). [1-6], 7-[318], [2] pp.

Fifth Obelisk printing of the book that "afforded [Miller] his literary voice" (Shifreen & Jackson).
    "I start tomorrow on the Paris book: first person, uncensored, formless — fuck everything!" So wrote Miller to Emil Schnellock in 1931. Three years later, after some financial difficulty, Jack Kahane published Tropic of Cancer at Obelisk in Paris with money Anaïs Nin borrowed from a psychoanalyst. It is the story of Miller's first year in Paris, living hand-to-mouth as a struggling writer.
    This edition is the same as the fourth edition in all but wrappers (and the same as the third in pagination, except for necessary variations on the copyright page: "Fifth printing" and "Reprinted January 1939"); our copy's => binding is blue and white, lettered in black, not the light green wrappers lettered in darker green called for by Shifreen & Jackson.
    Jack Kahane founded the Obelisk Press at Paris in 1929 to publish illicit English-language books like this free from legal censure.
    
    Shifreen & Jackson A9h. Binding as above; wrappers faded and creased along the spine, upper joints cracking. A copy that clearly was read more than a few times.