VG; VG+.
Jacket artwork by Bip Pares.
£120
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A great first edition of this uncommon ‘thirties title in the jacket. The tale of one man’s increasingly desperate attempts to avoid mediocrity.
In stock
VG; VG+.
Jacket artwork by Bip Pares.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1934.
First edition, reprint. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, with price sticker 2/6.
A darn decent copy of this difficult title to find in a contemporary jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
- a dead man in the bank strong room, rolls of brown paper and balls of string; empty, coffin-shaped boxes... An attractively jacketed edition of this tale by the 'Prince of Storytellers', with artwork by Bip Pares.
Detective Fiction
London, New York, Toronto, Hodder & Stoughton, 1913.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in black to upper cover, spine lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket with inset colour illustration.
An early, rare example of a dust-jacket featuring artwork seemingly solely commissioned for the jacket, rather than repeating a frontispiece or plate from the book. This was an important time of transition for dust-jackets, moving away first from the disposable, purely advertorial type and then those that just repeated an internal design.
Writing in Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers (London, 1980), Daniel P. King noted "In the mystery genre, [Mason] made ample use of the psychological element - and in doing so, was in advance of his time."
Detective Fiction
Holt (Gavin, pseud. Percival Charles Rodda) Murder at Marble Arch
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1931.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 3/6.
An very good first edition of one of Holt's best books.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth. Dust-jacket, price ablated from spine.
A pleasing first edition of this collection of short stories by 'Sapper', featuring the character Ronald Standish as chief protagonist (appearing previously only in 'The Saving Clause' (1927) and 'Tiny Carteret' (1930)). Sapper of course most well-known for creating Bulldog Drummond.