33
solander box. A near-fine copy, light wear to gilt on spine, lower tips, and a spot to edge of rear board, one tip lightly bumped with trivial creasing to first few leaves, else bright and fresh. ¶ Bleiler (1990), 1040, for the first edition in English; Anatomy of Wonder III , 2–123. £15,000 [152390] 34 H.D. (Hilda Doolittle.) Palimpsest :- Paris: Contact Editions, 1926 Signed copy of the author’s first novel First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the preliminary blank: “H.D., London 1926”. This is the first of the author’s Magna Graeca cycle of novels (followed by Hedylus in 1928). Michael Boughn notes that the true first edition, as here, was printed by Maurice Darantiere in Dijon. The first American edition used sheets printed in France, but was issued later.
33
33 HARBOU, Thea von, & Fritz Lang. Metropolis. Berlin: August Scherl, [1926] SIGNED LIMITED EDITION, SPECIALLY BOUND IN SILK FOR THE GALA PREMIERE Signed limited edition, number 40 of 100 copies signed by both von Harbou and Lang and bound in silk, issued as a souvenir of the world premiere of the film Metropolis on 10 January 1927. The limitation page specifies that this was for the premiere held at Ufa-Palast am Zoo, a grand occasion to which only the most important people, such as Chancellor Wilhelm Marx, Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, the minister of defence Otto Gessler, and the President of the Reichsbank Hjalmar Schacht, as well as critics of leading newspapers, were invited. There was a parallel screening, at Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz, for critics of lesser importance and the general public. The text chosen for this deluxe issue is the second printing (seventh to eleventh thousand); the first printing in book form was issued in advance of the film. It contains the full text, not the cheap abridgement issued the same year. The novel was based on the original screenplay written in 1924 by Thea von Harbou and her husband, the director Fritz Lang. The work was conceived and written with the intention of being adapted for the screen; it was first serialized in the magazine Illustriertes Blatt in 1925, accompanied by promotional screenshots from the upcoming film. Octavo. Original bright red textured silk, gilt titles and decoration to spine and front board, cream endpapers, top edge gilt, cream silk bookmarker. Housed in a custom black quarter morocco and red cloth
34
INEXHAUSTIBLE LIFE
24
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker