THE RESCUE. A Romance of the Shallows

1920. Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1920. Original blue cloth decorated in gilt, with dust jacket.

First Edition, published a month before Dent's London edition. THE RESCUE was Conrad's albatross, the book which hung about his neck from the beginning of his writing career until almost the end of his life. It was begun in 1896 [as THE RESCUER, the concluding volume of the trilogy begun with ALMAYER'S FOLLY and AN OUTCAST OF THE ISLANDS] -- as an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Lingard... But the book just would not sort itself out and it took Conrad another twenty years, working on it sporadically, before the much laboured-over manuscript was finally completed 25 May 1919 [Cagle]. This copy is from the first printing (gathered in 8s -- the second printing is virtually identical but is gathered in 16s; there was also a third 1920 printing, in 16s, but bound in the limp-leather "Deep Sea" binding). Included is the very scarce dust jacket, unusual for the DP&Co Conrad books in that it is pictorial; it is in the second of three states, with the $1.90 price on the front turn-in increased to $2.00 with an over-stamp (the first state, which we have never seen, has just the $1.90 price; the third state has just the $2.00 price). This is a fine, bright copy; the jacket is near-fine with minor wear at the foot of its spine (barely affecting the letter "P"). In our experience this jacket is scarcer than several earlier American Conrad jackets; it is also much scarcer than the Dent edition's jacket. Supino A22.1.0 (this copy); Cagle A49a(1). Provenance: discreet bookplate of the Conrad bibliographer David J. Supino (his brief penciled notation also appears on the endpaper).