Thorndyke, Signed (10 results)

[10p.] 5.5x7.5 inches, photos, lightly-worn limited edition facsimile of "Aspects of the Modern Short Story: English and American," limited to 200 copies hand-signed and numbered by the publisher Goldscheider, stapled pictorial wraps.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Edition. Light shelf wear and some browning to the endpapers, otherwise a clean copy with no writing except for the author inscription. The dust jacket is faded along the spine and has edge wear and chipping. Small amounts of paper loss at the corners, a larger amount at the head of the spine without affecting the title. Jacket and frontispiece/title page illustrations by Rus Anderson. The author has inscribed the book in a unique manner-writing it backwards (right to left), which you have to hold in front of a mirror to read: "To Foster, without whose help this book would never have been written." She has signed it in a normal fashion for English script (left to right): "Love to you both, Love Jean." The story: Two teenage boys are thwarted in their efforts to help with the demolition of an old Western pioneer hotel and get caught up in solving an 85-year-old mystery. 189 pages. Signed by Author(s).

Paperback. Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. Introduction by Norman Donaldson. Cover and fontispiece by Rob Pudin. Inscribed by Pudin and Tom and Enid Schantz on the half-title. Near Fine. Wraps lightly toned, bumped at the corners. Square and firmly bound, foxed at the top edge, clean internally. According to the inscription, this was the first copy sold. Signed.

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. A unique copy of the first (only?) edition of this study of R. Austin Freeman's great detective, Dr. Thorndyke, 288 pp. written by the author, Norman Donaldson. A VG- copy, with light creasing and edgewear. The author has signed a dedication to the previous owners on the title page. Loosely inserted are several cuttings from a local (Gravesend) newspaper concerning the erection of a memorial to R.A. Freeman, who had died in 1943, an invitation to the ceremony, receipts for donations to the memorial and a typed review of 'The Best Dr. Thorndyke Detective Stories'. Signed by Author(s).

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. 2nd Edition. RARE SIGNED 2nd edition hardback with dustjacket, published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 1998. 291pp. Signed by Norman Donaldson, with personal inscription to the flyleaf. Slight bumping to spine & boards, Some creasing to dustjacket, clean pages. Good signed copy of this rare volume. Signed by Author(s).

Pamphlet. Condition: Very Good. Stapled deep red literary pamphlet, signed and dated by author ; Signed by Author.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. 1st Edition. Bound in finely woven orange cloth stamped crisply in black on the front boards and on the spine. The book is very clean and tight throughout, virtually unread. This copy is an editorial copy with a review slip from the library of George Weida Spohn. Spohn's striking bookplate is on the front paste-down. In the colorful noirish pictorial dust jacket signed by J.W. Oliver. With small pieces missing from the top, and a 1" piece missing from bottom of the jacket spine. Wear at the corners. With the original price of $2.00 at the top of the inside front flap. Light edge rubbing along the folds. Richard Austin Freeman (1862 1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke. He claimed to have invented the inverted detective story (a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective's attempt to solve the mystery). Freeman used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels.Many of the Dr. Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine, metallurgy and toxicology. (Wikipedia) First Edition with matching dates of 1928 on the title and copyright pages and no subsequent printings.

Condition: Very Good. Autograph book (1925-32) with signatures of well known British actors/ managers etc., Signatures include: Gracie Fields, John Laurie, John Gielgud (with Shakespeare quote}, Peggy Ashcroft, Edith Evans, Ralph Richardson (with Shakespeare quote}, Alistair Sim, George Devine, Sybil Thorndyke, Yvonne Arnaud, George Devine, Owen Nares, Eric Portman, Cedric Hardwicke, Benjamin & Margaret Webster, Yvonne Arnaud, Arthur Wontner, Roger Livesey, Adele Dixon,Leslie French, Arthur Wontner, Godfrey Kenton, Matheson Lang, Jean Forbes-Robertson, Phyllis NielsenÐTerry, Harlold Chapin, Robert Speaight, Sir Cedric Hardwick, Sir Ben Greet, and more. Several original drawings in pencil and colour; also remarkable handwritten quotes from the actors theatre performances ".oh that was a mockery King of snow, Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke, To melt myself away in water drops. Richard the Second, Act Four. John Gielgud, with very good wishes, may 1932." Ralph Richardson quotes from Twelfth Night. Also contains ditties/poems that reflect the period. Sore bought autograph book. Original publisher's binding in Black leather, lettered 'Autographs' in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Pages in pale pastel colours, edged in gilt. Dimensions 135mm x 190mm.pp.33 signed, some pages with multiple signatures + unused pages. Ownership names on the prelims: Josephine Lary and P. Rodyk, with h/w note in pencil 'Autographs of theatre people.' Sound. Very Good. Very slight wear. Slight nicks at edges of spine. Signedes.

Hard Cover. Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket. First Edition. (New York: Dodd Mead 1941). First US Edition An Omnibus Edition. INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION. Publisher's green cloth front cover plain except for "Red BADGE DETECTIVE" emblem in black; spine has black lettering; top edge stained green. Inscribed by the Author to the FFEP: "To my friend, R F Jessup/ with cordial greetings & good wishes./ R Austin Freeman/ 27th February 1941". A near fine copy in a poor D/W. Book very nice. D/W could benefit from an upgrade. Photographs/scans available upon request. Signed by Author.

The nine letters are in good condition, lightly aged. They total nineteen pages, on a mixture of 4to and 12mo leaves, and cards. A chatty and gossipy correspondence, written in a flowing loose hand, going well beyond business matters. The first letter, 9 May 1965, is signed 'Enid B.', the others being signed 'Enid'. It is the only letter in its envelope, which is marked 'Private' by EB and addressed by her to 'Stanley Hall Esq | Wig Creations | 25 Portman Close | Baker Street | London W.1'. The tone of the first letter is representative. She states of one wig: 'I was getting desperate about mini it looked like coir door mat but two [buzzy?] to leave theatre. I'm afraid it will all be no good (play) She cant remember her lines sufficiently to get gaiety into it so its all played on downbeat, like a funeral. Oh dear oh dear I wore new wig last night to dine to meet Harold Pinter. I set out full of self-admiration but when I got back at midnight I realised why I had sat straight upright mum & severe. It was because somehow I looked like a retired Royalty living at Chislehurst. Too gold. Too many insistant [sic] curls. You are so patient you not only make beautiful wigs but you allow me to grumble.' In the second letter (15 May 1968) she asks for a wig to be 'dyed carbon-black in mourning for my lost play Terry sd last night "It's a massacre of your play but it might just be entertainment." I have a spare stall (with me) if you'd like to be in at the funeral?' In a letter of 19 July [no year] she gives directions, with a crude drawing, to her home: 'A sort of Cockeyed double house "North End House" with blue plaque "Sir Edward Burne Jones" attached to wall'. On 17 January 1968 she writes of Dame Sybil Thorndyke: 'Rehearsals on Monday Dame Sybil already knew every word unlike the lady bitch I saw look so pretty in your wig (too low over forehead, dear!) & waited. Sang her famous notes so "Modestly". As for me Im not even weaving the topnot [sic] (I must get Gordon to set it) & tonight Diana's rank & fashion assemble her at my house as the semi-hostess (Duff Cooper Memorial Party) will sit in a very expensive dress but bought eleven years ago, & my "charming" hair brushed up over pearly-pink baldness who cares when they've got rehearsals on?' In the last letter, 24 October 1969, she writes, following 'John's party (which was lovely - & how I liked Tyrone Guthrie)', that she 'felt so tired I almost then & there vowed I'd never go to London for the night again. Thats nonsense, of course. But what isn't nonsense is this: that just now what I have been wishing for for at least 3 years has come to pass that I am writing happily excitedly & rhymithically [sic] each day reconstructing my childhood & so on especially girlhood (& the first agonising coping with men plus what I thought was the disaster of my looks!)'. Derek Granger, in an obituary in the Independent, 14 January 1994, describes Hall as 'the undisputed master of his trade', 'in his great heyday without peer in his craft', employing 150 workers 'to sort the hair and weave and dress the wigs' in his Portman Close premises. Granger adds that Hall's 'buoyant sociability made him the friend and confidant of many of those whose heads he so cleverly adorned. [] he also began to flourish as a lavish London host and party-giver'.