Greene (Graham) Stamboul Train, uncorrected proof copy, some splitting to hinges but holding firm, original printed wrappers, light sunning and creasing to spine, some creasing to corners, light rubbing, but very good generally, preserved in custom morocco-backed drop-back box, 1932; Stamboul Train, first edition, second issue, a few scattered spots, original cloth, faint creasing to spine, light bumping to head and foot, rubbing to tips of spine and corners, 1932, housed together in custom slip-case, 8vo (2)

⁂ The rare uncorrected proof that almost led to a lawsuit for the publishers and forced Greene to make a handful of last-minute changes. We can trace only one other copy.

Greene completed Stamboul Train in the first half of 1932 and was informed that autumn that the Book Society had selected it as their Book of the Month for December, the first time any of his novels had been given such an accolade and likely to guarantee some 10,000 sales. With this in mind, Heinemann ordered 15,000 copies to be printed. Greene was at his Chipping Campden home when he received a call from the publisher that the writer J. B. Priestley had read one of the proof copies of Greene's novel and was threatening to sue for what he saw as a vicious parody of himself in the character of Q. C. Savory. Greene was a junior writer at the firm at that time and had little choice but to acquiesce to the publisher in their insistence that he change the name of the character as well as a few key characteristics. The printed books had their covers removed and the necessary pages substituted. Copies with the unaltered text therefore only survive in the tiny number of surviving proofs or the handful of copies of the first edition that had been circulated prior to the changes.