THE NATURE OF A CRIME

1924. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1924. Original decorative boards with black cloth spine and printed labels, with dust jacket.

First American Edition of this last of the three "collaborations" between Conrad and Hueffer/Ford (following THE INHERITORS and ROMANCE). (The English edition is by Conrad and "F. M. Hueffer"; the American is by Conrad and "Ford Madox Ford," using his de-Germanized adopted name). The book was actually written in 1906, at a time when their relationship was disintegrating, and it was virtually all Hueffer's work -- it is really nothing more than a "thinly disguised autobiographical memoir by Ford, to which he evidently wanted Conrad to contribute". As Conrad lay dying in 1924, Hueffer asked his permission to publish it with Conrad's preface, to which Conrad reluctantly agreed. Conrad called it "'that idiotic publication,' and he refused to allow it to appear in THE BEST STORIES OF 1924. He was outraged that people were speaking of it as a fresh collaboration, rumors that could have started only with the irrepressible Ford" [quotes from Karl]. This is a fine copy; the dust jacket is near-fine (the slightest of soil and edge-wear). This American edition is considerably scarcer than the English edition. Smith pp 94-95.