Grenadine Etching by Ruark Robert, Signed (1 results)

British first edition (with Frederick Muller requisite "First published . . ." statement upon copyright page) INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. 256 pages. Hardcover: H 19cm x L 12.75cm. Dust jacket with color pictorial front panel and spine; some rubbing with nicks, scuffs, and some creasing at edges; soiling to white rear panel; slender toning along folds and at top of flaps; front flap retains publisher's printed price at bottom corner; dj presented in an older Demco mylar protector. Dull magenta cloth with bright gilt stamped lettering to spine. Toning and foxing to text block edges and endpapers; light foxing at margins of several initial and rear leaves but interior pages remain mostly clean. Binding is firm. Author's seven-line black wax pencil inscription "For Rachel and | Jack - such | nice pickups | on the Costa | Brava, | Best | Bob Ruark" on the front free endpaper. This British first of GRENADINE ETCHING was issued some seven years after Doubleday published the first American edition in 1947 but, nonetheless, inscribed/signed copies of Ruark's first novel are exceptionally uncommon. Acquired from the estate of entomologist and big game hunting aficionado Dr. David F. Young, Jr. (1922-2017) who, for many years, chaired the Extension Entomology Department at Mississippi State University but with no preceding provenance known. Although the inscription is undated, Ruark likely signed the book in his final five years of life during which he resided in London, Barcelona, and, most coincidently, Sant Antoni de Calonge in Spain's Costa Brava region.