James Joyce. 
 
B.W. Huebsch: 1917. Second printing. Hardcover. Octavo. A few stains of red ink on the front board. A black stain on the spine and a few smudges of white on the back board. Shelf wear and small dings along the edges of the boards, especially on the crown and heel of the spine. Spine slightly leaning. Some browning and a few tiny scratches on the edges of the text block. Some tanning along the tops of the leaves. Minor dots of stains on the attached endpapers. Corners of the boards impressed. First ten leaves on the top of the board have the minor fold due to the impression. Same goes for the last ten leaves. A small dot or stain every fifteen pages or so. 299 pages. Very good. 
 
The prelude to Ulysses became the definitive bildungsroman of modernism. Joyce created the form all young novelist's novels about themselves now take. Amazing that such a book was just the beginnings of another great one. What's even better is the prose itself. 
 
“A day of dappled seaborne clouds.The phrase and the day and the scene harmonised in a chord. Words. Was it their colours? He allowed them to glow and fade, hue after hue: sunrise gold, the russet and green of apple orchards, azure of waves, the greyfringed fleece of clouds."