Vladimir Nabokov LOLITA, 1958

Out of Stock

Lolita was published in September 1955, as a pair of green paperbacks “swarming with typographical errors” at Olympia Press. Although the first printing of 5,000 copies sold out, there were no substantial reviews. Eventually, at the very end of 1955, Graham Greene, in the London Sunday Times, called it one of the three best books of 1955. This statement provoked a response from the London Sunday Express, whose editor John Gordon called it “the filthiest book I have ever read” and “sheer unrestrained pornography”. British Customs officers were then instructed by the Home Office to seize all copies entering the United Kingdom. In December 1956, France followed suit, and the Minister of the Interior banned Lolita amd the ban lasted for two years. Its eventual British publication by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in London in 1959 was controversial enough to contribute to the end of the political career of the Conservative member of parliament Nigel Nicolson, one of the company’s partners. The novel then appeared in Danish and Dutch translations. Two editions of a Swedish translation were withdrawn at the author’s request. Despite initial trepidation, there was no official response in the U.S., and the first American edition was issued by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in August 1958

Description

New York: Book Club Edition with G. P. Putnam’s Sons, (1958 / 1955). Publishers quarter cloth hardcover with gilt title to spine and a well preserved original dustjacket, unclipped and protected. 319 pages with a new afterward by Nabokov

The first book club edition from 1958 identical to the First American edition, the 1st printing except no color to topedge and “Book Club Edition” in small red letter to front flab

Rare contemporary original copy, attractive in every way