The Penrose Mystery

FREEMAN, R. Austin

Published by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1936

About this Item

First American Edition. -- Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket with the exception of thin lines of unnecessary colour touch-up along outer edges and front flap fold. -- Details: Dr. Thorndyke is concerned with the mysterious disappearance of Daniel Penrose, a well-to-do collector of antiquities. Richard Austin Freeman (1862-1943), expert bookbinder, a capable wax and clay modeller, and an amateur painter of the academic school, as well as his own laboratory technician. To prospective interviews he invariably replies: 'I have no desire for personal publicity'. By all accounts, something of a cross between a genius and a nutcase, he built a bunker in his own back garden as a hobby, and was an innovator of forensic technique. He is best known for his John Thorndyke novels and short stories. First American edition, copyright page stating 'Copyright 1936' and no mention of additional printings. Published the same year by Hodder & Stoughton, London. -- References: Reilly, 'Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers' (1980), 612. Cooper & Pike, 'Detective Fiction', 140. Book and Magazine Collector, 2006, Issue No. 272, 39. Hubin, Crime Fiction, 157. -- Octavo (book size 19.3x13.8cm), pp. viii 300 [4]. In publisher's orange cloth, brown lettering to spine and upper board, top edge with orange tint, foredge untrimmed, others trimmed, endpapers with red Dodd Mead 'Red Badge' them. Dust jacket priced '$2.00' to upper corner of front flap, all flaps with publisher's decorative trim to corners, thin lines of colour touch-up along outer edges and front flap fold. --.

Seller Inventory # 110635

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Penrose Mystery
• Publisher: Dodd, Mead & Company, New York
• Publication Date: 1936
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included