Item #15148 THE SHADOW LINE. A Confession. (Zane Grey's copy). Joseph Conrad.

THE SHADOW LINE. A Confession. (Zane Grey's copy)

Garden City NY: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1917. Original blue cloth decorated in gilt.

First American Edition, published about a month after Dent's London edition. The American edition was set from proof sheets supplied by Dent, after which Conrad made changes that were effected in the UK edition but not in the US one; as a result, "the American edition provides an interesting intermediate text between the ENGLISH REVIEW and the first Dent edition, showing the extensive changes made from serial to copy text for the book, as well as the further polishing which took place in proof" [Cagle]. This is one of Conrad's most autobiographical tales; to quote from the dust jacket (not present),

The "shadow line" is that dim boundary that divides youth from maturity. How a young first mate, who unexpectedly finds himself in command of a sailing vessel, leaves his carefree youth behind forever in the agonizing responsibility of a twenty-one day voyage from Bankok [sic] to Singapore. His ship is becalmed, the whole crew stricken with fever and no quinine in the medicine chest!

This is a fine copy. Supino A20.4.0; Cagle A21b.1. Provenance: the front free endpaper bears the personal blind-stamp of American author Zane Grey -- indicating a volume that came from his estate. Item #15148

Price: $350.00

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