BOY [First postwar edition]

James Hanley

Edité par The Obelisk Press, 16, Place Vendome, Paris, 1946

A propos de cet article

First postwar edition, published by the Obelisk Press, Paris in 1946. Published in wrappers as a paperback original. ***Very good in grey thin card wrappers. The wrappers are very fragile but complete. Edges of wrappers are creased and rubbed with small closed tears. The very fragile spine is also complete, with just very small loss at the bottom. Priced at 'Frs 175' on the bottom of the back wrapper. No significant chips or tears. Light reading creases to the spine. Spine tight. The fore-edge of the page block is untrimmed, i.e. rough-cut. Internally very good with a neat ownership name to the top of the first blank leaf. Top corner of the last few pages slightly creased. The last couple of leaves are also uncut at the top edge. Pages clean but tanned with age. ***194mm x 144mm. 171 pages plus Epilogue at the back of the book. ***'"Boy" had a very interesting publishing history. In brief - first published in unexpurgated form in the UK by Boriswood, in an edition of just 145 signed copies. An expurgated trade edition was also published at this time. When it was reprinted in 1934, in a cheap (second) edition with a "scantily dressed" belly dancer on its cover, "Boy" was prosecuted for obscenity. The court case followed a complaint to the police by someone who had borrowed the novel from The National Library, in Bury, near Manchester, Lancashire: "The prosecution suggested that the cover of the book and extracts from reviews just inside were most suggestive, and that the purpose was to pollute young people's minds". Boriswood "were advised that, owing to the book's reference to 'intimacy between members of the male sex', any defence against prosecution was futile'". In March 1935 Boriswood pleaded guilty of "uttering and publishing an obscene libel" and paid a substantial fine. Subsequently "Boy" was republished, by the Obelisk Press in Paris, in 1936, 1938 and 1946. Jack Kahane was a noted publisher of banned books in English, including Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and D. H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover". However, it appears that Hanley did not agree to the republishing in Paris, and that only Boriswood received royalties. Furthermore, according to Hanley's son Liam, his father "firmly rejected" any "overtures from publishers to reissue "Boy" during his lifetime. [Wiki] It didn't appear in print again until 1990, when the unexpurgated version was republished by André Deutsch in the UK. ***'Boy is the grim story of an intelligent thirteen-year-old boy, Fearon, from Liverpool who is forced to leave school by his parents so as to help support the family, by working "on the docks as a boiler-scaler".[5] Hating this job and after being beaten by his father, Fearon stows away on a ship. When he is discovered, as the ship is shorthanded, he is signed-on to the crew. Fearon's suffering continues on board where he is sexually assaulted. When the ship docks in Alexandria, Egypt, Fearon has his first sexual encounter with a woman, in a brothel, where he contracts syphilis. On the return voyage this disease rapidly develops. The novel concludes with the captain smothering Fearon to put him out of his misery and his body given to the sea. [Wiki] ***A later printing of this work, which was originally published in the UK by Boriswood, London in 1931. First published by the Obelisk Press in Paris in 1938, after the book had been banned in the UK - this is the first postwar edition and is uncommon. The production is so fragile, it is unlikely that many copies have survived the last 75 years. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

N° de réf. du vendeur 7809

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: BOY [First postwar edition]
• Éditeur: The Obelisk Press, 16, Place Vendome, Paris
• Date de parution: 1946
• Reliure: Original Wraps
• Édition: First Thus
• Impression: 5th or later Printin
• État de l'article: Very Good
• État de la jaquette: No Jacket, as Issued
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Literature
  • First Editions
  • Collectable Paperbacks