We had the pleasure of running into the first US Printing of Dubliners. Dubliners, a collection of short stories written Mr. Masterful Joyce. Consider this a perfect location to start if you want an gentle introduction into Joyce, before you need to work your mental muscles.
This edition tends to be coveted as the second most desirable. Grant Richards, London beat B.W. Huebsch to the punch in 1914, A mere roughly 700 copies graced us with their prescence and inrigued collectors around the world.
Upon investigation on the subject and like Ulysses, Joyce had a hard time getting this work published. The first publisher, Grant Richards, started publication in 1909, but stopped due to some of the content within the book. (We will dive into this more, once we start review of Dubliners.) The lead printer did not agree with the content. With multiple revisions and years later, they found a mutual understanding.
B.W. Huebsch was an independent publisher who met Joyce when he helped him publish two of the short stories of this book, in an American Magazine "The Smart Set". They became close when he first published A Portrait in 1916, and later this copy of Dubliners within the same year. This edition one of 504 copies of the first American edition. B.W. Huebsch actually bound these using imported sheets from the first London edition, but with the title page being a cancel with the Huebsch imprint instead of the Grant Richards logo. .
Stay tuned, fellow bibliophiles for more revelations as out quest for infinite knowledge unfurls!
References:
Brockman, William. B. W. Huebsch, jamesjoycecorrespondence.org/hueb76.xml. Accessed 30 Dec. 2023.
