McTeague: A Story of San Francisco

San Francisco: The Colt Press, 1941. Hardcover. Introduction by Charles G. Norris. Illustrations by Otis Oldfield. Small 4to. Quarter vellum with gilt spine lettering and blue patterned paper over bevelled boards. (5pp), 390pp. Line drawings, marbled endpapers. Near fine. Choice copy of this first thus, being a reprint of the grim 1899 fiction about an unlicensed dentist who goes amuck, here introduced by Norris's younger brother and with illustrations. A sexual incident that happens to young August ("Owgooste") at an opera in chapter six so incensed some critics that Norris was forced to rewrite one small section near the end of that chapter in later printings -- but in this edition the original text has been restored. Ironically, in his introduction brother Charles mistakenly notes that "the much criticised episode is included in its original form and may be found at the end of Chapter IV" -- of all the typos! -- and some early owner of this volume circles this wrong Roman numeral in pencil and adds "VI." Rear colophon notes 500 copies "Issued by Jane Grabhorn and William Matson Roth Publishers and Designers" -- and this copy elegantly custom bound in lovely quarter vellum with gilt spine lettering and striking marbled endpapers (the regular edition being brown buckram spine with paper label and paisley print paper over boards).