The Lost Girl; TOGETHER WITH an Manuscript Letter [Post Card] from D.H. Lawrence to Hubert Loss

London: Martin Secker, 1920. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/very good. A remarkably SCARCE copy of the hard-to-find first edition, first printing / first issue [or mixed first issue and second issue with pages 256 and 268 not tipped in as in the first issue but with the phrase "in the bed" dropped from the end of chapter III as in the second issue [see Roberts and Schwartz] -- also all of the pages appear to integral but the reading of the last line of Chapter III shows that "in the bed" has been dropped-- the presence of which phrase Schwartz states is required for the first state [but see NOTE below] of the English edition in a Very Good SCARCE TO RARE dust jacket dust jacket with evidence of tape still present on the jacket's verso and shadows of which can be seen on the jacket's recto, and two leaves, those hosting pp 141/142 and 143/144 having a tear with loss to their upper leading margins without affecting the text., and being an otherwise Near Fine copy of the first edition, first printing of the notable work which won the 1920 James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the fiction category (a Literary Prize originally awarded only in Fiction and then later also in Biography and Drama, the Prize originally having been created by the widow of James Tait Black of A & C Black Ltd. fame. [Notably the Prize also has been awarded to Noble Prize Winners in Literature William Golding, Nadine Gordimer, and J. M. Coetzee, and Cormac McCarthy also has won the Prize, as well as have Hugh Walpole, Walter de la Mare, E. M. Forster, Liam O'Flaherty, Siegfried Sassoon, C. S. Forester, Aldous Huxley, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, C. P. Snow, Muriel Spark, Iris Murdoch, Lawrence Durrell, Salman Rushdie, John le Carré, Ian McEwan, and others.] The first American edition of "Lost Girl" was not published until 1921.); TOGETHER WITH: A QUITE RELEVANT AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED written on both sides of Post Card measuring 3 1/2 inches x 5 1/2 inches to Hubert Loss, the assistant editor of Land and Water concerning this novel and written and signed in dark ink "D. H. Lawrence"); FURTHER TOGETHER WITH with a modern copy of a photograph of D. H. Lawrence. The letter, in relevant part reads: "Have you received the MS. of my novel The Lost Girl [underlined], which I posted to you exactly a month ago…I should be glad to know. // If you have this MS. and Secker wants it to make corrections in his uncorrected copy, please let him have it. But if The Queen [underlined] would like to see the book, and if 'She' could read it in a week or so, perhaps let her have it first [underlined], because if once Secker gets it there is no knowing when he will part from it again: he would only need [underlined] to keep it a few days. Hope it has arrived....D.H.Lawrence".

The book and its loosely-laid-in items are housed in a quarter-leather slipcase lettered (lightly decorated) and dated on the buttressed spine in gilt with the edges of the leather lined in gilt. It is the first issue of the book


* `The Queen` here is not a reference to royalty, but rather to a publication that Lawrence had hoped would serialize his work. Despite his desire and negotiations, that wish never came to fruition. The novel - which Lawrence started to write in 1913 before setting it aside for several years - eventually receiving the blessing of Secker, the London publisher responsible for producing Lawrence's works. Secker, in fact, purportedly told the author, 'I am quite sure of your future' upon reading it, although at the time it never became the popular success that he had hoped. Published in 1920, The Lost Girl was Lawrence's sixth novel and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

Queen magazine was a British society publication briefly established by Samuel Beeton in 1861. It became The Queen: The Ladies Newspaper and Court Chronicle before returning to The Queen.

Queen (originally The Queen) magazine was a British society publication briefly established by Samuel Beeton in 1861. It became The Queen: The Ladies Newspaper and Court Chronicle before returning to The Queen. In 1958, the magazine was sold to Jocelyn Stevens, who dropped the prefix "The" and used it as his vehicle to represent the younger side of the British Establishment, sometimes referred to as the "Chelsea Set" under the editorial direction of Beatrix Miller. In 1964, the magazine gave birth to Radio Caroline, the first daytime commercial pirate radio station serving London, England. Stevens sold Queen in 1968. From 1970, the new publication became known as Harper's & Queen after a merger of two publications: Queen and Harper's Bazaar UK, until the name Queen was dropped altogether from the masthead. It is now known as Harper's Bazaar.

[NOTE: The last page of Chapter III from which the phrase "in the bed" has been dropped is page 47. Page 48 hosts the first page of Chapter IV and the leaves hosting pages 47 and 48 are uncut at the leading edge, thus were printed at the same time and are not listed by either Roberts or Schwartz as having been tipped in. Yet, Schwartz states that the absence of the phrase is evidence of the first edition, second state. Another characteristic of the second state per Schwartz is that page 268 is tipped in. However, the leaves hosting pp 265 through 268 and those hosting pp/269 through 272 are unopened at their leading edge thus could not be tipped in as most of them are not listed as such. [As a further matter, none of the typography on page 242 is transposed and Roberts cites such transposed type as characteristic of the first edition, third state.] In consequence of the forgoing, we are unsure of what state of the first edition (first, second, third) this copy constitutes. Nevertheless, with the DUST JACKET AND POST CARD WRITTEN AND SIGNED BY LAWRENCE, THIS IS A RARE COPY.