London: Secker and Warburg, 1971

8vo, pp. 249. Original printed orange wrappers. Spine a little rolled, a little light edgewear and bumping. About near fine.

Uncorrected advance proof copy. EDITOR JOHN BLACKWELL'S COPY WITH HIS INITIALS TO FRONT WRAPPER, AND HIS CORRECTIONS THROUGHOUT.
John Blackwell joined Secker and Warburg in the late 1960s when the imprint was still an independent company run by Fredric Warburg himself, and was a constant presence through the company's innumerable corporate takeovers, mergers and changes of managing director. As well as editing Sharpe, John Blackwell played literary midwife to J. M. Coetzee, Michael Moorcock, Tom McGuane, Malcolm Bradbury and Louis de Bernieres, among many others. His emendations in this, his own copy, are made in red ink, and are mostly typographical and grammatical corrections; here and there, deletions have been made in blue.