The Garden Party and Other Stories

First edition. First issue, with misprint – sposition – on the last line of page 103. Small crown 8vo. 276 pp. Grey-blue ribbed cloth, ruled and lettered in ochre to spine and front; top and fore- edges trimmed, bottom rough trimmed. Published 22 February 1922 at 7s. 6d. Preceded by twenty-five trial-binding copies stamped in navy-blue, which were rejected in favour of the present issue for increased legibility. The former were used as salesmen's samples or, according to some sources, sent to Australia.

Offsetting to end papers, text-block edges age-toned and foxed, backstrip sunned, hinges starting to prelims., some internal soiling, else a very decent copy.

Author's second short story collection and last book to be published during her lifetime, dedicated to her on-off husband, lover, editor and literary executor John Middleton Murry. Cyril Connolly's The Modern Movement: 100 Key Books from England, France and America, 1880–1950, #40: "The Garden Party is Mansfield's best book of stories."

[Kirkpatrick A5; Mantz A1]