A Passage to India.

London: Edward Arnold & Co.,, 1924. Scarce in the jacket First edition, first impression, in a well-preserved example of the dust jacket, and with a contemporary publisher's advertisement slip loosely inserted. During this period, the book trade viewed jackets as functional pieces of ephemera to be discarded at the point of purchase by customers and booksellers alike. "Collectors before about 1925... often expressed their disdain for the jacket by failing to insist on its presence or by neglecting to preserve it when present" (Tanselle, p. 4). Therefore, when jackets survive, they are often in poor condition. This jacket exemplifies the most typical early 20th-century design, plain and elegant, with advertisements on the front flap and rear panel. "It was this abyss of separation between the English and the Indians which became fertile ground for post-colonial studies when they emerged in the 1970s: was Forster imposing on the Indians the limitations and prejudices of his English imagination, or was he a pioneer in recognizing an independent Indian identity, whether that of the Westernizing Aziz or of the eternal rhythms of the Hindu masses?" (ODNB). Forster began writing the book in 1913, upon his return from his first visit to India (1912-3). Publication was delayed due to the war and in the following years he went on a second trip to the country (working as the private secretary to the Maharajah of Dewas senior) and continued to rework the novel, which eventually appeared in print on 6 June 1924. "Up to the last moment [Forster] had been assailed by doubts and despairs about his novel, but its reception removed all his fears. The book suited the moment, and friends and reviewers alike called it a masterpiece and his finest achievement" (Furbank, p. 123). Octavo. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black. With dust jacket. Cloth bright, a little shelfwear at spine ends, small damp stain to lower outer corner of front free endpaper, faint foxing to edges, else clean; jacket spine panel toned, a few nicks and shallow chips at edges, couple of short closed tears discreetly repaired on verso, light vertical crease to front flap, without price as issued: a near-fine copy in the rare jacket, notably well preserved. Kirkpatrick A10a. Philip Nicholas Furbank, E. M. Forster: A Life, 1978; G. Thomas Tanselle, Book-Jackets. Their History, Forms, and Use, 2011.