Rare special edition. The first edition of Anna Livia Plurabelle by James Joyce, the text that was to become chapter eight in Finnegans Wake, and introduce Joyce readers to the character that fellow Irish author Edna O'Brien was to describe as 'the most accessible and indeed beloved character conceived by Joyce'.

Slocum and Cahoon note that: 'Of these 50 copies [on light green paper] probably 6 were offered for sale by the publisher. These were numbered 1 to 6, with the following notice on p.[iv] in the handwriting of Crosby Gaige: This is one of 6 copies on green paper. Crosby Gaige.'; however, this copy is simply numbered '3', and does not bear the publisher's statement on the limitation page. The remaining 44 copies were presumably disseminated by Crosby Gaige, with the exception of a few, which were passed on to the Chaucer Head Book Shop, New York, by Random House in 1938.

FIRST EDITION, no. 3 of six numbered copies of 50 COPIES ON PALE GREEN-TINTED PAPER, from an overall limitation of 850; 8vo; title previously detached cleanly at gutter now with neat reversible tissue paper repair to verso, chip from fore-edge of a preliminary blank leaf, slight separation at upper hinge, bookplate to front pastedown; publisher's black cloth lettered in gilt on the spine and with triangular gilt design on upper cover, top edge gilt, presented in morocco-backed, cloth drop-back box.

Slocum & Cahoon A32.