Collation:—pp. 128, consisting of half-title (with list of eight books By the same Author on verso), pp. (1, 2); title-page, as above (with London: Martin Secker (Ltd.) 1923 on verso), pp. (3, 4); table of Contents (verso blank), pp. 5, (6); divisional half-title (verso blank), pp. (7, 8); text, pp. 9-(128). Printers’ imprint at foot of p. (128) as follows: Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner, Frome and London
Crown 8vo, 7¼ × 4¾; issued in garnet cloth; front and back covers blank; backbone has cream paper title-and-name label lettered across in red as follows: (a line) / Psychoanalysis / and the / Unconscious / (a line) / D. H. Lawrence / (a line) / Secker / (a line). Top and fore edges cut; bottom edges rough trimmed. End-papers white.
The American edition of Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious, which was the first, exists in two forms. I collated both the so-called “Special Issue” and the ordinary edition because I know that many collectors, as well as some dealers, have been puzzled about the first forms of this book. A comparison of items 17 and 17A will show that the two forms of the first edition of Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious differ in the following respects: first, the “Special Issue” has a certificate of issue on the verso of the half-title, but is on the inside otherwise identical with the ordinary form—even to the broken U on page nine, in the word “Unconscious;” second, the sheets of the “Special Issue” measure 7⅜ × 5, while those of the ordinary issue measure 7⁵⁄₁₆ × 5; third, in keeping with this difference, perhaps, the outside measurements of the “Special Issue” are slightly larger all around; fourth, the boards of the two forms are different in color; fifth, the lettering on the “Special Issue” is darker than that on the ordinary copies.
Just why the “Special Issue” was done is not exactly clear. Perhaps some plans with regard to it miscarried, and the idea of a real limited edition was given up. At any rate the five copies of the book I examined were all unnumbered, and the original price on them was that of the regular edition. It is not too much to say the limited “Special Issue” of Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious is freakish rather than any thing else. It is a collector’s item.
After the first edition of this book had been exhausted, Mr. Seltzer issued the second printing in a more substantial “case,” that is to say, in cloth, in which form it is now available. It will be noticed from the collations above that the first American edition preceded the corresponding English edition by more than two years.
In spite of all that critics have said or may say about Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious and its successor, Fantasia of the Unconscious, one thing is clearly incontrovertible. It is this: both of these books, especially the latter, reveal flashes of illumination, such as are found in imaginative thought—and nowhere else.
(18)
TORTOISES
Published December 9, 1921
Tortoises / By / D. H. Lawrence / (publisher’s device—in red) / New York / Thomas Seltzer / 1921
Collation:—pp. 50, consisting of half-title (verso blank), pp. (1, 2); title-page, as above (with Copyright, 1921, by / Thomas Seltzer, Inc. / (a line) / All rights reserved / Printed in the United States of America on verso), pp. (3, 4); table of Contents (verso blank), pp. (5, 6); fly-leaf, with Baby Tortoise on recto (verso blank), pp. (7, 8); text, pp. 9-50 (page numbers in square brackets). There is no printer’s imprint. There are fly-leaves, which mark the divisions of the work, at pp. (7), (15), (21), (27), (37), (43). Pp. (8), (14), (16), (20), (22), (28), (36), (38), (42), (44) blank.