Western Books in Japanese Translation
1. Jude the Obscure
 |
Thomas Hardy, Hakumei no Judo (Jude the Obscure), translated by Uchida Seiichi (Kaizousha, Taisho 14, i.e. 1925). First edition in Japanese. Original cloth spine and paper boards. 695 pages of text, plus introduction and notes, etc. Octavo. Hardy had a huge impact in Japan, and very few English novels - among them his Tess and Bronte's Wuthering Heights - surpass Jude the Obscure as a seminal influence on the darker elements of modern Japanese literature. 10 holding libraries in Japan.
|
2. The Rainbow
 |
D.H. Lawrence, Niji (The Rainbow). Taisho 13 (1925). First edition in Japanese. Japanese (non-circulating) library stamps. |
3. Ulysses
 |
James Joyce, Ulysses (Daiichi Shobou, Tokyo, 1931, at which time the original text was still banned in both Britain and America). First edition in Japanese. Contains the first thirteen chapters of Joyce's book (the second part did not come out until 1934). Translated by Itou Sei and Nagamatsu Sadamu. Itou (translator of other works, such as Lady Chatterley's Lover) is one of 20th century Japan's leading literary lights. His seal is tipped in on the copyright page. One of two thousand copies printed. Unlike,say, the Swiss edition (1000 copies, 1927), this was not a prestige publication, but a simple soft cloth-bound book priced at two yen a copy, few of which have survived. 16 holding libraries in Japan.
|
4. Mountolive
 |
Lawrence Durrell, Mountolive (1962). First edition in Japanese.
|
5. The Human Factor
 |
Graham Greene, The Human Factor (Hayakawa, 1979). First edition in Japanese. One of a number of titles I have by Greene and other 20th century authors. |
6. Coraghessan Boyle
 |
Coraghessan Boyle, East is East (Shinchosha, 1992). First edition in Japanese. One of a number of works I have by modern writers. |
Others:
I have quite a large number of Japanese first printings/editions in collectible condition of western writers - such as T.S. Eliot, George Meredith and Walt Whitman - and many other modern firsts, such as Bruce Chatwin, John Irving, Kazuo Ishiguro, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Le Carre, Elmore Leonard, Eric van Lustbader, Norman Mailer, Tom Robbins, Isaac B. Singer, William Styron, Amy Tan and Tom Wolfe.
|