The Cingalese Prince [Inscribed and Signed with Type Letter Signed Laid in]

Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1934. First Edition Stated. Octavo; publisher's cloth, red topstain, in pictorial dust jacket retaining original price ($2.50), decorative map endpapers; vii,[3],303pp. Wear to jacket margins including closed tears and chips with extensive old tape repairs to verso, spine panel quite toned, cloth spine darkened and corners bumped, else a Very Good copy in a Good to Very Good example of the scarce dust jacket. Inscribed and signed on front free endpaper in year of publication to the author's fellow New York Times drama critic Lewis Nichols, "with gratitude for many kindnesses including the chore of reading proof. Sincerely, Brooks Atkinson / Oct. 24, 1934." Also laid in a later (1969) typed letter to Nichols in the original postally used envelope congratulating him on his retirement but declining to attend the retirement party, "I don't drive any more than I absolutely have to these days, since my eyes are not what they used to be, and New York traffic scares the hell out of me." Atkinson also apologizes to Nichols for abruptly leaving his job as theatre critic to travel around the world (the result of which was this book). "When I went off to China I really put you on the spot in a way that was unforgivable. I wrote an enthusiastic Sunday piece about The Skin of Our Teeth which you had to review when it opened on Broadway. But I hope some of the other things you had to review provided compensation. You had Oklahoma!, Carousel and the visit of the Old Vic and other wonders that I have forgotten.".…