Lewis, C.S. (1955) ‘The Last Battle’, UK uncorrected proof of the final Narnia novel

Clive Staples Lewis (1955) ‘The Last Battle‘, UK uncorrected proof, published by The Bodley Head. The seventh and last volume in the seminal Chronicles of Narnia series. Original grey wraps with title and author printed to the top as well as the publisher and the year 1955 to the bottom. The novel would later be published in September 1956 so this proof preceeds the first edition by many months. The 1955 date is also printed on the copyright page as opposed to 1956 in the first edition. The proof omits mentioning the author’s previous publications on the page preceeding the title page which has been added in the first edition. On the half title page the publisher affixed a label stating “This advance proof is sent with the compliments of The Bodley Head 28 Little Russell Street, London. W.C.1. who hope you will find it of interest. They would like to point out that this copy has not been corrected”. The proof comes with a dust jacket which wraps tightly around the proof with the folds matching the shape of this book so we can rule out that the jacket had been added at a later point. There does not appear to be a design difference between this dust jacket and the wrappers used later in the first edition. Condition: light foxing to page block and a few prelims. Internally clean and free of any scribbles. No previous owners’ marks, no bookplates, no stamps. Lean to the page block. Dust jacket with some foxing and edge wear as shown. Overall in very good condition. We have not been able to find many proofs of any of the Narnia books coming to the market so this is a unique opportunity to acquire one of the rarest items of Lewis’s oevre. Especially desirable due to the seminal character of the Narnia series.