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Published by C. Arthur Pearson Ltd., London, 1901
Seller: Cat's Curiosities, Pahrump, NV, U.S.A.
First Edition
Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. Illustrated by P(ercy) B(ell) Hickling (1876-1951) ("The Old Man in the Corner") and by John Cameron ("The Purple Cloud" (illustrator). 1st Edition. A large octavo hardbound volume -- six months' issues of the monthly British magazine, tightly bound and well preserved on a nice glossy stock. Containing the first series of six stories featuring "The Old Man in the Corner" -- the stories that invented the "armchair detective" -- all set in London. (A second series of seven mysteries -- explained and solved by the Old Man for the lady journalist who consults him in the ABC tea room -- would be named for the cities in which they are set, "The Glasgow Mystery" (April, 1902) through York, Liverpool, Brighton, Edinburgh, Dublin and Birmingham. Re-written into the third person, the York, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Dublin mysteries were later collected along with these first six stories in the hardcover book "The Old Man in the Corner," Greening 1909 -- a Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone of the genre. It was to be two more years before the Baroness Orczy would have her breakthrough success with the stage play "The Scarlet Pimpernel." This bound volume also contains M.P. Shiel's classic tale "The Purple Cloud," complete in two installments. 576 pp., reduced from $340.