Women in Love by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert) - 1922

New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1922 First U.S. trade edition, first printing. Publisher's blue-gray cloth, ruled in blind to front board, lettered in gilt to front board and spine; in the original first issue dust jacket, printed on cream-colored paper in red and black, front panel with an illustration of a woman's head with streaming hair. A very good copy with faint soiling to front board and rubbing to extremities, darkening to gilt on the front board, significant darkening of the spine gilt which now appears black, offsetting to endpapers, front pastedown with a note in blue pencil, toning to page edges and foxing to top edge; in a very good or better dust jacket with some foxing to front board, toning to spine, shallow chipping and a few closed tears to extremities, a touch of loss to spine ends, one-inch scratch to bottom edge of front panel, three-inch tear to top edge of rear panel where it meets the rear flap. Overall, a beautiful copy in the extremely rare first issue dust jacket. Roberts A15 Women in Love chronicles the lives of three generations of Brangwens, a farming family from Nottinghamshire, whose livelihoods and relationships are affected by the industrialization of England. Lawrence originally intended the text to be titled "The Sisters," which he eventually divided into Women in Love and its prequel The Rainbow (1915). Because of the controversies surrounding The Rainbow, which was censored for its unapologetic descriptions of the characters' sexual desires, Women in Love was initially rejected by "almost every publisher in London." It was not until the New York based publisher Thomas Seltzer issued a privately printed edition of 1,250 copies that other publishers took note of the book. Notably, the first issue dust jacket on the U.S. trade edition is extremely rare and is mentioned only briefly in later editions of Robert's bibliography of D. H. Lawrence: "This is the dust jacket that Lawrence considered 'terrible'". The boldly illustrated design was unusual for the time, and was part of an effort by Seltzer to capitalize on the controversy that surrounded Lawrence, positioning his books as new and daring material in the New York market. The design stood in stark contrast to the dust jackets issued by Lawrence's London publisher, Martin Secker, whose simple, text-only jackets attempted to downplay the controversial nature of the text.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Dust Jacket Included.