A Problem in Greek Ethics was privately printed in 1883 in an edition of ten numbered copies. Where are those copies now?
Morgan Library, call number 125923 (copy number unknown). This copy contains several important manuscript annotations. Written in ink on the flyleaf: “John Addington Symonds. This essay was written at Clifton Hill House about 1874, printed by Ballantyne + Hanson at Edinburgh in 1883, bound at Davos Platz in 1885.” Additional autograph note [in Symonds’ hand?] pasted down on verso of front free endpaper records the distribution of the ten copies.
University of California, Los Angeles, Young Research Library, call number YRL BJ182 .S98p 1883 (copy #5). This copy contains the signature of H. Ellis on the flyleaf and the author’s manuscript revisions and deletions made in preparation for publication as an appendix to Havelock Ellis’s Sexual Inversion, 1897.
Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries, in process (copy #6). MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON!
Morgan Library, call number 125919 (copy #7). This copy, from the library of Robert D. Brewster, contains the bookplate of John Addington Symonds. Written on the front free endpaper: “To Edward Carpenter from the author, Jan. 29 1893.”
Morgan Library, call number 125918 (copy #9). Also from the library of Robert D. Brewster. It is described by Symonds’ bibliographer Percy L. Babington (no. 34, p. 49) as follows: “The copy described in No. 9. The numbering is in ink on the wrapper, towards the right hand top corner, and is in Symonds’ handwriting. Through the kindness of a friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, I have had access…”
British Library, shelfmark CUP.402.c.299 (copy #10). With manuscript notes. This copy provides the copy-text used by Sean Brady in John Addington Symonds (1840-1893) and Homosexuality: A Critical Edition of Sources (2012). Brady describes it thus: “The printed copy held by the British Library and used here was clearly Symonds’ personal copy, and written emendations throughout the copy were made by him in preparation of a version of ‘A Problem in Greek Ethics’ for inclusion in Sexual Inversion” (41). Such annotations, however, are found in other copies.
