Published by Transition, Paris, 1928
First Edition
Paperback. Condition: Good Only. Various (illustrator). First edition. The summer 1928 issue of this experimental literary journal, with contributions from Gertrude Stein and James Joyce, and plates after Man Ray and Pablo Picasso. With cover art from Pablo Picasso, this is issue number 13, Summer 1928, of experimental literary journal 'transition'. Featuring surrealist, expressionist, and Dada art and artists, the publication ran from 1927 to 1938, with a total of twenty-seven issues ultimately produced.This issue features photographic plates from Man Ray, Berenice Abbott and others, alongside plates depicting reproductions of the work of Picasso. Contributors to this work include James Joyce, William Carlos Williams, Laura Riding and Gertrude Stein.This important literary journal was intended as an outlet for experimental writing and featured modernist, surrealist and other linguistically innovative writing, alongside contributions from visual artists, critics, and political activists.With eighteen pages of advertisements to the rear of the work. In the publisher's original paper binding. Front wrap, back strip and rear wrap all detached but present. Discolouration, folds and chipping to perimeters of wraps. Half title also detached from binding. Otherwise, internally firmly bound. Pages age toned due to paper type. Good Only. book.
Published by Faber and Faber Limited London [1929], 1929
First Edition
8vo. First UK edition using sheets printed in France in May 1929. Original turquoise cloth lettered in gilt on the spine. Cloth a little darkened to the spine and top edges. Neat ink ownership, dated 1940, on the fly. Unclipped jacket, showing the price as '6s. net', a bit tanned on the spine with tiny nicks to the spine ends. Near fine in near fine d/w. A collection of essays about 'Work In Progress', which would be published as Finnegans Wake ten years later. The two 'Letters of Protest' are by Joyce. Beckett's contribution, 'Dante. Bruno. Vico. Joyce' is the author's first appearance in print. His first novel, only published in 1992 after his death but probably written c. 1932, was called 'Dream of Fair to Middling Women'. That title is adapted from Tennyson's poem but was used unaltered by Henry Williamson for one of his novels, published by Faber and included as No. 14 in the list of 'The Faber Library' on the back panel of the jacket of this book. The former owner was David Daiches CBE (1912-2005), the Scottish literary historian and critic.
Published by Shakespeare and Company, Sylvia Beach, Paris, 1929
Seller: Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books (ABAA), CHESTER, CT, U.S.A.
First Edition Signed
First edition. [3]-194, [2] p. 191 x 140 mm. (7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.). Original printed paper wrappers. Copy no. 60 of 96 numbered copies printed on Arches paper. Mogens Boisen's copy (the Danish translator of Ulysses) inscribed to him by Sylvia Beach, and with two letters from him to a former owner, explaining the circumstances. Small chip from rear wrapper edge, light creasing on front wrapper, otherwise a fine copy. In a folding box, with the announcement. "Dante.Bruno. Vico.Joyce" published here constitutes Samuel Beckett's first appearance in print.
Published by Transition / Shakespeare and Company, Paris, 1938
First Edition
First edition. Complete run of Eugene and Maria Jolas's landmark literary journal, which - along with Margaret Anderson's THE LITTLE REVIEW - was one of the primary vehicles of Modernist and experimental writing. Over the course of 11 years, often times under great financial difficulty, they published a who's-who of modernist and experimental authors, alongside the work of Surrealist, Expressionist, and Dada artists: "TRANSITION would explore the literary currents washing over Europe and America, present them all if they showed 'imaginative emancipation' as against descriptive naturalism" (Hoffman). Beginning with the very first issue, they published several portions of James Joyce's Work in Progress (Finnegans Wake), and notably, Jolas's English translation of Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS, which appeared in issues 24-26. Contributors across other issues include Kay Boyle, Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway, Hilda Doolittle, Paul Bowles, Hart Crane, Gertrude Stein, Bob Brown, Malcolm Cowley, Robert Graves, Dylan Thomas, André Breton, André Gide, Marcel Duchamp, and others. A notoriously fragile publication, with complete sets in original condition seldom encountered in commerce, TRANSITION is a difficult run to assemble - especially in original wrappers and in collectible condition. A rare monument to Modernism and the early avant garde. Twenty-seven issues bound in twenty-five volumes, early issues 7.5'' x 5.5'', later 8.6'' x 6''. Original typographic and pictorial wrappers all. Various paginations (circa 150-325 pages most). Most issues have light wear to extremities, gentle sunning to spines and wrappers, some of the usual tanning to text edges, with occasional small edge tears, and some dust-soil to wrappers; small loss to front wrapper on No.3, with some small nicks, tears, and attendant creases to the taller issues; a few issues with previous owners names, another half-dozen with occasional foxing or minor soil to spines or wrappers; No.18 with shallow loss to lower margin of one plate; in many volumes, pages are still unopened. Very good to near fine overall.