JAMES, HENRY. The American Scene. London: Chapman and Hall 1907. 8vo, original burgundy buckram, t.e.g., spine faded, light rubbing, endpaper cracked at front inner hinge, preliminary leaves foxed; half morocco slipcase. FIRST EDITION, FIRST BINDING, one of 800 copies, PRESENTATION COPY TO HUGH WALPOLE, inscribed by the author on front free endpaper (slight offset on inscription from bookplates opposite): "To Hugh Walpole: Henry James, Lamb House, July 20th, 1909." BAL 10663; Edel & Laurence A63a. With Walpole's bookplates. This first edition contains Section VII (6 p.) of the last essay, "Florida," which was eliminated in the American edition published shortly after. This inscription dates from about three months after the young writer Walpole first visited James at Lamb House. As Leon Edel notes (Letters, IV, pp. 363-364): "At the end of the decade [1901-1910] he formed a friendship with the young Hugh Walpole, whose work he criticized but for whom he showed a marked affection."