The White Peacock

Precedence confirmed, motive corrected. Duffield (New York), 19 January 1911, does precede Heinemann (London), 20 January 1911, by one day, so the American edition is the true first of Lawrence's first book. But McDonald records that simultaneous Anglo-American publication was the intention and that copyright proceedings had already begun in both countries during 1910; the census gloss that the American edition was issued a day early 'to secure copyright' is not supported and is dropped. Both editions are collected, and the Heinemann carries the more significant textual point. Heinemann was printed from plates imported from Duffield; its verso reads 'Copyright, London, 1911, by William Heinemann, and Washington, U.S.A., by Duffield and Company'; it has no printer's imprint at all (McDonald records the omission as accidental). After the English sheets were bound a paragraph was bowdlerized and replaced, so Heinemann copies normally show a tipped-in cancel leaf at pp. 229/230 — the Duffield text is unaltered, which is precisely why McDonald collated the American edition. Heinemann: pp. iv + 496; greenish dark blue cloth, a three-panel black rectangle across the front cover with title and author in white in the middle panel and conventionalized rose-bush designs in the end panels; spine gilt with 'Heinemann' at foot; top and fore edges cut, bottom edges untrimmed.