C A L I F O R N I A A N T I Q U A R I A N B O O K F A I R 2 0 2 6
SIGNED AND WITH AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER LAWRENCE, D.H. THE RAINBOW Methuen, 1915 [46682] First edition, first issue. Signed in black ink by the author to the title-page. Original teal cloth, lettered in blind on the upper cov - er, gilt-decoration and lettering on the spine. Housed in a green French levant solander case with gilt title and decoration on the spine, and wine-coloured watered-silk protecting wrappers. Accompanied by a hand-written, signed two sided letter, to his literary agent J. B. Pinker dated 14th December 1915. It discuss - es the title of Twilight in Italy and the publication of The Rain- bow. A fine and bright copy, with the lower fore corners slightly bumped. Circular library stamp neatly washed from imprint on title page. $25,000 Lawrence’s great early novel of which only 1250 copies of the first edition were printed, and about a third of which were destroyed following the book’s prosecution for obscenity. J.B. Pinker was D.H. Lawrence’s literary agent during the First World War, and oversaw publications including The Rainbow, while Lawrence battled his work facing censorship and personal financially instability.
LAWRENCE, D.H. LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER Florence: Privately Printed for the Author, 1928 [41759] First edition. Number 19 in a limited edition of 1000 copies pri - vately printed for the author in Florence. Signed by the author on the limitation page. Original mulberry card backed boards with the Lawrencian phoenix in black on the upper cover and title label on the spine, in scarce publisher’s unprinted yellow dustwrapper. A fine copy, crisp and clean with just a little foxing to the title label in a fine dustwrapper with a trace of wear to the spine ends and a tiny puncture to the rear panel. Internally uncut and unopened. An exceptional copy. $31,500 Lawrence’s most famous work but also one of the most controversial books of the twentieth century. It was rejected by both British and Amer- ican publishers on the grounds of obscenity, forcing Lawrence to seek the help of Florentine bookseller Giuseppe Orioli, who arranged for the book to be set by hand by Italian printers and issued on subscription in an edition of 1000 copies. Despite being banned in Britain and America, with several illicit consignments seized in police raids, the edition sold out within six months. It was subsequently pirated and translated, ex- purgated and bowdlerised, condemned and confiscated until Penguin’s unexpurgated publication and subsequent acquittal for obscenity in 1960 marked a significant advance for the freedom of the written word.
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