Crown 8vo, 7½ × 5; issued in bluish dark green cloth; front cover has one-line border in blind, and is lettered across top in blind as follows: The Rainbow / D. H. Lawrence Backbone ornamented and lettered across in gilt: (flower and leaf design) / The / Rainbow / (single flower design) / D. H. / Lawrence / (same design as at top, augmented by leaf) / Methuen Back cover blank. Top and fore edges cut; bottom edges untrimmed. End-papers white.
The Rainbow, universally considered by dealers and collectors alike Mr. Lawrence’s scarcest book, was published, according to The English Catalogue, in October, 1915. The publishers, however, said that the exact date of issue was September 30, 1915. And with that they stopped, for they seemed unwilling to give me any more information about the book. Altogether wry was the letter they wrote. But from other sources it is evident that The Rainbow was in circulation just six weeks before action for its suppression was successfully carried on November 13, 1915. The curious may consult a communication by G. W. de Tunzelmann, published in the Athenæum, November 20, 1915, which, if accurate, fixes the date of suppression.
Regarding the circumstances attending the action against the publishers, a letter by Mr. Gilbert Cannan, New York Tribune, January 10, 1920, is worth reading. Mr. Cannan asserts that after proceedings were brought “the publishers, taking alarm and not understanding what had happened, did not defend.” This is substantially what Mr. Lawrence says in his preface to the present volume. The upshot of it was the publishers were fined and ordered to destroy their stock of the book, after which, one may suppose, all went “on with the War.” Whether such copies as the publishers had on hand were committed to the tender mercies of the public hangman, I do not know. At any rate, it may be safely assumed that Methuen & Co., Ltd., complied fully with every mandate of the court, and that they distributed no copies of The Rainbow after November 13, 1915.
In his preface above Mr. Lawrence mentions the protests of Mr. Arnold Bennett and Miss May Sinclair against the suppression of The Rainbow. I regret my inability to give specific references to the time and place of these protests. But all indices failed me, and both Mr. Bennett and Miss Sinclair wrote that they could not now tell me where to look for their parts in the controversy. Both wrote against the suppression, but apparently in letters—not in special articles. In her reply to my inquiry Miss Sinclair gave this indication of her position: “I said that the suppression of this book was a crime, the murder of a beautiful thing.”
The first American edition of The Rainbow was published, from new plates, by B. W. Huebsch, New York, 1916. Subsequently Mr. Huebsch brought the book out in a more expensive form, but the text remained the same as that of the first American edition. These are the expurgated forms to which Mr. Lawrence refers. The Rainbow, with the Huebsch text, was published by Thomas Seltzer, New York, 1924.
It will be seen from all this that the complete text of the novel which lies so close to the affections of its author is to be found only in copies like the one collated above. The Methuen Rainbow is, I need hardly say, a very scarce book. Whether or not it is scarcer than the Heinemann White Peacock must remain a matter of opinion.
(8)
TWILIGHT IN ITALY
Published June 1916
Twilight in Italy / By / D. H. Lawrence / (publishers’ device) / London / Duckworth and Co. / 3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, W. C.
Collation:—pp. viii + 312, consisting of half-title (with list of six Works by D. H. Lawrence at head of verso), pp. (i, ii); title-page, as above (with First published 1916 in center of verso), pp. (iii, iv); acknowledgement—three lines (verso blank), pp. v, (vi); table of Contents (verso blank), pp. vii, (viii); divisional fly-leaf, with The Crucifix across the / Mountains on recto (verso blank), pp. 1, (2); text, pp. 3-(311). Printers imprint at foot of p. (311) as follows: Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh. P. (312) blank. At end of volume are two separate 16-page catalogues: the first contains Messrs. Duckworth & Co.’s / Spring / Announcements / 1916 The second, A List of the Libraries / and Series of Copyright / Books Published by / Duckworth & Co. There are divisional fly-titles before the major divisions of the work at pp. 1, 27, (223), (263). Pp. (2), (28), (222), (224), (262), (264) blank.