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First Edition, First Issue (without the authors names on the title page and with three pages of ads at the rear, also SD and 'Set up and electrotyped May, 1903' on the copyright page). This book was previously owned by the author, biographer, and literary critic Maxwell Geismar, although he did not write his name in the book. I bought a good number of his books some years ago. I currently have ten listed for sale, books that were signed and inscribed to him by their authors, and books that were written by him which he signed and inscribed to his wife Anne. Mr.Geismar edited and wrote the Introduction to a book titled Jack London: Short Stories which was published in 1960. He appears to have read The Kempton-Wace Letters while preparing for his work about Jack London. The majority of pages in this book have red penciled lines and parentheses at the margins and some have red penciled underlining. There are also a small number of instances where he wrote a word or two on the margin of a page. I imagine for some collectors and/or scholars his markings will provide an added interest, while for others any markings would be viewed as a negative. I have chosen to price the book quite inexpensively. The lowest price on the Internet for a first edition, first printing of this book is currently $750.00. You can see the covers in the photos. The illustrated design on the front is in very good condition. There are a few small spots of soiling on the front and the rear. The white lettering on the front is very bright. On the spine, which is toned, the gilt lettering is still quite visible, both for the title at the top and the small letters of the publisher's name at the bottom. As you can see there's a little rubbing and wear at the spine ends. There are only tiny spots of rubbing at the corners, the two front ones have a speck of rub-through. The edges are in very good shape. The bottom ones have several tiny spots of color loss, each also has one speck-sized spot of rub-through. The middle and bottom page edges are deckled or rough-cut. The binding is decent. There is a space between the rear side of the front end paper and the half-title page and between two pairs of facing pages in the text, but all of these pages are tightly bound from top to bottom. There is a small tan spot near the top corner of some early pages, but overall the pages are very clean. Some early pages are cut shorter at the bottom, but perfectly even. I'm not seeing any corner creases. There are no attachments of any kind. 'The novel presents a discussion of the philosophy of love and sex, written in the form of a series of letters between two men, Herbert Wace, a young scientist, and Dane Kempton, an elderly poet. London wrote Wace's letters, Strunsky Kempton's. Kempton makes the case for feeling and emotion, while Wace analyzes love in Darwinian terms: 'I purpose to order my affairs in a rational manner. Wherefore I marry Hester Stebbins. I am not impelled by the archaic sex madness of the beast, nor by the obsolescent romance madness of later-day man. I contract a tie which reason tells me is based upon health and sanity and compatibility. My intellect shall delight in that tie.' Initially the public was piqued by the anonymity of the writers and the book was moderately successful. Biographers have been intrigued by The Kempton-Wace Letters for the light it seems to shed on Jack London's life and ideas. Strunsky was named as the co-respondent in Jack London's divorce from his first wife, Bessie, but biographers generally agree that his relation with the younger Strunsky was platonic. They were active in socialist causes and members in a San Francisco radical literary group known as The Crowd.' Maxwell Geismar would have been drawn to their politics. He was an activist against the Vietnam War and also signed the Triple Revolution statement that was sent to President Lyndon Johnson in 1964. He wrote the introduction to Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice. Seller Inventory # 004721
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