Graham Greene

A Descriptive Catalog

Robert H. Miller

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780813193038
• eBook ISBN:
  9780813189130
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies
• Index: Literature

English novelist, short-story writer, playwright and journalist, Graham Greene was one of the most widely read novelist of the 20th-century, a superb storyteller. Adventure and suspense are constant elements in his novels and many of his books have been made into successful films. Although Greene was nominated several times as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, he never received the award.

Graham Greene is a descriptive catalog of first editions of works by Greene, which are currently held in the collection of the University of Louisville. Arranged chronologically by title, Robert H. Miller, also includes letters, radio scripts, pamphlets, and subsequent editions of importance and scarcity.

BOOKS

6. Babbling April

a. BABBLING APRIL | BY GRAHAM GREENE | OXFORD: BASIL BLACKWELL | 1925

(192 x 129 mm.) a⁴ b–c⁸; i–viii, 1–32.

Contents: i, title page; ii, colophon: “PRINTED AND MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN | AT THE SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS | STRATFORD-UPON-AVON”; iii, quote from Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Spring,” from Second April; iv, dedication to his father and mother; v, note on previous appearance of poems; vi, blank; vii, table of contents; viii, blank; 1–32, text.

Binding: Pale purplish-blue paper boards, with the following printed in blue ink on the front board: “Babbling April | Graham Greene | [ornament: solid blue leaf].” Dust jacket: Gray textured paper, with the following printed in black on the front cover: “Babbling April | Graham Greene | [ornament: solid black leaf] | Oxford | Basil Blackwell • Broad Street | Price 4 s. 6 d. net.” Rear cover carries advertisements for Oxford Poetry 1924 and Eighty Poems.

Note: According to Blackwell’s, Babbling April was published in a limited edition of 500 copies, 302 of which were bound. Forty review copies were sent out on 30 April 1925, twelve copies were sent to the author on 13 May, and the book was formally published on 18 May. On 1 June 1934, “200 quires” were withdrawn from stock and scrapped, “quires” referring to unbound individual copies rather than to separate gatherings of copies (letters from P. Fenemore, Antiquarian Department, Blackwell’s, of 17 August 1970 and 1 September 1976). This copy belonged to Royall Snow, who reviewed it for Poetry Magazine, 29 (May 1926), 112–14, with his signature on the recto of the front free endpaper. Snow and Greene were at Oxford at the same time.

Brennan 1.

7. The Man Within

a. THE MAN WITHIN | BY | GRAHAM GREENE | [ornament, 3 mm.: parallelogram] | “There’s another man within me | that’s angry with me.” | SIR THOMAS BROWNE. | [publisher’s device: Heinemann windmill] | [double taper rule] | LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD

(185 x 120 mm.) A B–Y⁸; i–xii, 1–354 355–356.

Contents: i–ii, blank; iii, half-title; iv, list of new and recent fiction; v, title page; vi, copyright page: “First published 1929”; vii, dedication to his wife, with a six-line quote from Thomas Hardy; viii, blank; ix, table of contents; x, blank; xi, “PART I”; xii, blank; 1–354, text; 355–356, blank.

Binding: Black cloth with gold lettering on the spine. Front board carries single-rule, blind-stamped border. Rear board carries Heinemann windmill blind-stamped in lower right corner. Dust jacket: Pale yellowish-white paper with the following on its front cover: “[within a double frame of blue triangular ornaments in blue ink] THE | MAN WITHIN | GRAHAM GREENE.” Rear cover carries advertisements for other Heinemann titles.

Note: Pickford Waller’s copy, with his bookplate on the front pastedown endpaper. By Greene’s accounting, total sales of this edition numbered 8,000 copies, of which 2,500 copies constituted the first printing (A Sort of Life [London: Bodley Head, 1971], pp. 192, 215).

Brennan 2.

b. [all the following in black within a green octagonal three-rule frame] THE | MAN | WITHIN | BY GRAHAM GREENE | [publisher’s device: dolphin and anchor within octagonal frame, in green] | “There’s another man within me | that’s angry with me.” | Sir Thomas Browne. | DOUBLEDAY, DORAN & COMPANY, INC. | GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK | MCMXXIX

(190 x 127 mm.) 1⁸ (1₁ + x²) 2–20⁸; i–vi, 1–2 3–316 317–318.

Contents: i–ii, blank; iii, half-title; iv, brief profile of GG; v, title page; vi, copyright page; 1–316, text; 317–318, blank.

Binding: Green cloth, with dark green cloth spine, gold lettering on spine. Top edges stained green; green endpapers. Fore edges uncut.

Brennan 2.

8. The Name of Action

a. THE | NAME | OF ACTION | by | Graham Greene | “. and lose the name of action.” | Hamlet | [publisher’s device: Heinemann windmill] | LONDON | WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD

(186 x 117 mm.) A B–W⁸ X¹⁰; i–x, 1–2 3–344 345–346.

Contents: i–ii, blank; iii, half-title; iv, advertisement for The Man Within; v, title page; vi, copyright page: “FIRST PUBLISHED 1930”; vii, dedication to Vivienne Greene with quote from Donne; viii, blank; ix, quote from T. S. Eliot and author’s disclaimer; x, blank; 1–344, text, with the date “March, 1929–July, 1930” on p. 344; 345–346, blank.

Binding: Dark blue cloth with gold lettering on spine. Front board carries single-rule, blind-stamped border. Rear board carries Heinemann windmill blind-stamped in lower right corner. Dust jacket: Yellow paper with the following on front cover: “[all the following within two vertical lines of black triangular ornaments] The Name | of Action [title in red] | [in black] by | GRAHAM | GREENE | Author of | THE MAN WITHIN.” Rear cover carries excerpts from reviews of The Man Within.

Note: John Hayward’s copy, lot 80 of the Hayward sale at Sotheby’s, 12 July 1966. This novel, along with Rumour at Nightfall (9a, 9b), has been suppressed by GG and exists only in the first English and American editions of 1930 and 1931 respectively. In A Sort of Life, GG puts the sales of NA at slightly over 2,000 copies (p. 199).

Brennan 3.

b. [in black] THE | NAME OF ACTION | Graham Greene | AUTHOR OF “THE MAN | WITHIN” | [in red: Doubleday seal, dolphin and anchor] | [in black] “. and lose the name of action.” HAMLET | [in red: thin double taper rule, 93 mm.] | [in black] Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc. | Garden City, New York | MCMXXXI

(190 x 130 mm.) 1(1₁ + 1) 2–20⁸; i–x, 1–2 3–312.

Contents: i, half-title; ii, blank; iii, title page; iv, copyright page; v, dedication: “FOR VIVIENNE,” with a quote from John Donne; vi, blank; vii, quote from T. S. Eliot; viii, blank; ix, disclaimer; x, blank; 1–312, text.

Binding: Black cloth with a blind-stamped figure of a lion in the center of the front board. Spine carries title and author’s name, but lettering is too faded to allow the color to be noted. Red endpapers.

Brennan 3.

9. Rumour at Nightfall

a. [in red] Rumour at | Nightfall | [in black] by Graham Greene | [publisher’s device in red: Heinemann windmill] | London | William Heinemann Ltd

(183 x 120 mm.) A B–F G H–S⁸ T¹⁰; i–viii, 1–300.

Contents: i, half-title; ii, list of books by GG; iii, title page; iv, copyright: “FIRST PUBLISHED 1931”; v, dedication to his father and mother; vi, blank; vii, quote from Thomas Traherne; viii, blank; 1–300, text.

Binding: Red cloth with gold lettering on spine. Front board carries blind-stamped, four-pointed star in upper right corner, with five rays emanating outward. Rear board carries Heinemann windmill blind-stamped in lower right corner.

Note: This novel exists only in this edition and the first American edition noted below. GG puts the sale of this edition at 1,200 copies (A Sort of Life, p. 207...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Bibliographies Consulted
• Letters
• Radio Scripts
• Pamphlet
• Books
• Index
• About the Author