OCTOBER FERRY TO GABRIOLA.

London : Jonathan Cape, (1971). First British edition. Lowry's final novel, completed in draft form before his death and edited from his marginal notes and instructions by his widow, Margerie Bonner. A journey "on which hangs the meaning of his being" to the island off Vancouver. "Had he lived and worked it into the dense rich complexity of Under the Volcano it would have been another such masterpiece ... the familiar Lowry hallmarks of occultism, subtlety with words, vivid recurring images, the theme of lost homes and an endless journey ... Lowry's search for humanity's lost equilibrium" (Victoria Brittain in the Illustrated London News, 1st November 1971). "A species of ecstatic prose that has all but gone out of existence" (Matthew Corrigan in the New York Times, 25th October 1970). Post 8vo (21cm). [4],[viii],336pp. Original maroon boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; top edge grey; tiny bruise at foot; some almost imperceptible tanning of endpapers; some spotting of edges, but a very good copy in the Bill Botten dust-jacket - the jacket lightly bruised, with a hint of spotting here and there, but unworn and also very good.