THE PRUSSIAN OFFICER and Other Stories

1914. London: Duckworth & Co., (1914). [2 +] 20 pp undated ads. Original dark blue cloth lettered in gilt.

First Edition, first state, of Lawrence's first book of (twelve) short stories -- his sixth book overall. The title story examines the psychology of a captain in the German army and his orderly -- a tale of sexual repression culminating in violence. This book was published in the same year that Frieda von Richtofen Weekley got a divorce from her husband, Prof. Ernest Weekley of Nottingham, and immediately married Lawrence, her lover of two years (-- this just as her cousin Baron Manfred was about to become famous for his aerial exploits (truncated) against the British). This copy has the 20-page ad catalogue, which Roberts designates as the earliest state; there are also copies in this dark blue-with-gilt binding with 16 pages of ads (second state), plus some in a light blue-with-dark blue binding with 16 pages of ads (third state). Volume very slightly aslant, but this is a remarkably fine copy with very little sign of age or wear. Roberts A6 (variant 1). Provenance: bookplate of "The Beaufoy Library," which is to say, the family descended from the 19th Century balloonist and bibliophile Henry B.H. Beaufoy (1786-1851). (Inventory #: 15640)