A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce, James - 1916

NY: B. W. Huebsch, 1916. First printing of the author's first novel and third book, certainly considered one of the seminal books of the modernist movement in literature. Very good in the original blue cloth with the title and author's name blind-stamped on the front board. Gilt lettering on the spine is slightly dulled, but very legible. There is some rubbing to the cloth at the spine ends, with tiny spots of fraying in a few places. Clear evidence of a bookplate removal on the front pastedown, and evidence of the erasure of a single line which had been embossed on the copyright page. There is also a quarter-sized area at the lower left corner of the rear pastedown where the top layer of paper has been pulled away. Very small cracks in the endpapers covering both front and rear hinges, but the binding is tight and square. The bookplate removal and erasure of the small embossed line could indicate the book was in some sort of private library at one time, but the condition indicates not much use over the years. The book was purchased from the estate of a professor of English at the University of Tulsa (which has one of the largest Joyce collections in the world), and whether he undertook the improvements himself, or purchased the book in this condition is unknown.. First Edition. Hard Cover.