Lady Chatterley's Lover
Florence: Privately Printed by Typographia Giuntina, 1928. First Edition. Octavo : pp. [iv] [368]: original mulberry boards with black phoenix : white paper label on spine : untrimmed and unopened : SIGNED by the author at the limitation page : with scarce yellow dust jacket. [Roberts 42a]. Bump to the head of the spine and to the lower corners with some loss to the paper on lower board; ghost of tape residue to the lower pastedown; the extremely scarce jacket has shallow chips to the extremities and closed tear to the fold of the top joint, repaired with archival tape to the verso; previous owner's blind stamp to the tail of the title page. [Roberts A42a]. Near fine / very good. Item #15543
“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.” — D. H. Lawrence.
No. 336 of 1000. This is the first edition of Lawrence's ambitious attempt to present the mystery and wonder of sex. It was available only by subscription in this private Florence printing and banned in England and America for obscenity. Copies were routinely seized and destroyed by customs officials in both countries. Lady Chatterley's Lover was not available in the U.S. until Grove Press brought the matter to court in 1959. In England the book had been available in a heavily censored form until Penguin decided to publish an unexpurgated edition in 1960. A lawsuit ensued and Penguin, like Grove in the US, was able to persuade the jury that the book should stand on its literary merit. The public was finally able to read the novel as Lawrence wrote it, thirty years after this first private printing.
Price: $35,000.00