New York: Charles Scribner's Son, 1904.
One of two known copies, unpublished thus and potentially a pre-publication copy (see below). From the personal library of author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, an avid book collector whose sizable library included many items by and about Henry James.
Sendak did not sign or affix his bookplate in most of his books. Provenance slip laid in from a Sendak auction on behalf of the Rosenbach Museum of Philadelphia. This book was originally included in Lot 159, accompanied by another copy of the pre-publication state (the other copy more nicely bound than this one).
Plain gray paper boards with spine label. Fine.
The text is a memorial essay by James on Ivan Turgenev, his friend and literary influence. First published in an 1888 collection, the essay appeared as the introduction to the multi-volume Scribner's edition of Turgenev's works (1903-1904.). The sheets in this copy are from the Scribner's printing, and the title-pages here appear to be mock-ups, being composed of printed slips laid onto a blank leaf. 35 pp., numbered V – XXXIX, + 30 blank leaves.
These introductions may have been simply extracted from the larger work and bound separately; or, they could be pre-publication copies; or, they could be mock-ups for a separately printed edition of this introduction by James. There are no comparable copies shown by WorldCat or recorded in the Edel & Laurence bibliography of Henry James, and we find no evidence that this introduction to Turgenieff was ever separately printed, though that does not mean that no attempt was made to do so.